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Bombshell
fraud in ID cards This official, who had a special unit functioning directly under him, was responsible for the issue of an authenticated NIC to Thyagarasa Jayarani, the female Tiger guerrilla suicide bomber who exploded herself at the Kollupitiya Police Station on July 7. The incident killed four policemen including a woman. The same unit had given another NIC to her accomplice, Sathyaleela Selvakumar. The special unit, officially termed as a "Special Belt," is the only one that functioned under the top bureaucrat though he was administratively in overall charge of all 13 units. Functioning from a building at Barnes Place, Colombo 7 only the "Special Belt," has been located on the first floor. The remaining 12 that were functioning in the ground floor had come under the immediate charge of an Assistant Commissioner. However, he had no control over the 13th unit. The suicide bomber's identity was confirmed as Thyagarasa Jayarani only after her photograph appeared in The Sunday Times of July 11 with an appeal by the CID to the public for information. That morning, Gayan Karunaratne, a former MP for Nawalapitiya, turned up at the CID Headquarters to identify her as a domestic help who had worked for his household for over an year. The rackets at the Department for the Registration of Persons had come to light during investigations into the suicide attack. It is directed by DIG (CID) Lionel Goonetilleke and comprises a top level team headed by Sisira Mendis, SSP who is Director, CID. Detectives were led to an employee of the Department after accomplice Sathyaleela, now in remand custody, named him and said she paid him a bribe of Rs 3,500. This was in addition to Rs 500 as fee to claim an NIC on the grounds that she had lost the one issued to her. The new NIC had been issued to her on May 5, 2004, the same day the renewal request had been made. Detectives who mounted surveillance arrested the employee, Mohamed Ahamed Rafaideen, together with two others who were in possession of 13 NICs. It was revealed that none of these cards was issued after the Department received applications. It was also revealed that the suicide bomber's NIC had been issued on June 19, barely four weeks before she carried out the attack. CID detectives have found that a departmental serial number stamped on the suicide bomber's passport had been fraudulently made. Checks with the Record Room had revealed that the serial number belonged to a batch of 500 applications sent to the record room in 1993. In other words it did not belong to the NIC of the suicide bomber. Like the 12 units that functioned under an Assistant Commissioner, the special unit under the top bureaucrat had also been drawing high security paper for the issue of the NICs from a Deputy Commissioner responsible for the subject. It has now come to light that this top bureaucrat's special unit had issued more than 100 NICs without proper application or documentation. These issues had been made without following the departmental procedure of checking with the Index Card (maintained after the original issue) or with any other departmental records. |
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