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Rent and sell vehicle racket: LTTE gets 7
By Santhush Fernando
The woman suspect who masterminded the largest vehicle racket in the country, renting cars valued at a staggering Rs. 88 million, had been involved in selling some of these vehicles to the LTTE.

The latest investigations conducted by the Colombo Fort Police revealed that the suspect had so far sold seven vehicles to the LTTE through two middlemen from Colombo.

The Colombo Fort Intelligence OIC Inspector Lakshman Silva told The Sunday Times that a Buddy van, a Kia Sorento, two Dolphin vans, two FD 15 cars and another vehicle had been sold to the LTTE and a sum of Rs. 2.7 m. given as commission to the middlemen.

Ramani Deepika Nanayakkara, the 39-year-old suspect, who was operating a rent-a-car business in Nawala, Rajagiriya was arrested by Police last week and remanded until August 16 after being produced before Colombo Fort Magistrate Sarath Karunaratne.

Her mode of operation had been to obtain vehicles from individuals and private institutions by paying a monthly rental for operation of a cab service and later selling them to persons mostly outside Colombo after changing the colour of the vehicles and their number plates by producing forged documents.
The value of the vehicles rented by her is estimated at Rs. 88 million of which vehicles worth Rs. 14 million had already been sold. The sale of the vehicles had netted Rs. 11 million for the suspect.

Of the 171 vehicles rented Police had recovered 61 vehicles. So far 116 persons have lodged complaints against the suspect, police said.
The Colombo Fort Police started its investigations after a large number of people in Colombo and the suburbs reported to police stations that this particular suspect was defaulting payment of rent and avoiding them when they went to inquire about the non-payment.

Vehicles had been sold mostly to outstation buyers including persons from Ampara, Vavuniya, Batticaloa and other areas of the North and East. A vehicle belonging to a magistrate in Gangodawila is reported to have been sold in this manner.

Police said the two middlemen involved would be arrested shortly.
Further investigations are being conducted under the instructions of Colombo DIG Pujith Jayasundara, Colombo Central SSP D.P.L. Dissanayake and ASP Champika Siriwardene. Investigations are being conducted by OICs Lakshman Silva and Jayantha Seneviratne.

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