Upcountry gang linked
to Tigers busted
By Shelton Hettiarachchi
A gang connected to the LTTE in the Ragala area
in Nuwara Eliya district who were raiding liquor shops to collect
money, was arrested police said.
Police said that on the night of November 3 the
gang was reported to have broken into a liquor shop at Medawatta
and then gone to Ragala town to continue the robbing spree when
one of them, later identified as Karate Raja of Mahacoodagala Ragala,
was shot dead by a policeman. Another gang member who received gunshot
injuries was admitted to the Nuwara Eliya hospital and later transferred
to the Kandy Hospital.
Police said that continuing investigations on
the following they found another member of the gang wounded and
hiding under some tea bushes in the Medawatta area. He was identified
as K. Krishnapillai of Batticaloa. When he was being taken to hospital
in a Police vehicle he had attempted to struggle with a police officer
causing the vehicle to veer off the road as a consequence of which
another policeman had shot him. The twice-wounded man had been admitted
to the ICU of the Kandy Hospital.
Another member of the gang identified as S. Kumaravel
of Mannar was found hiding in a farm belonging to a relative of
Karate Raja. Kumaravel said to have had connections with the LTTE
and bearing identification No.1555 was arrested on November 6 by
a team led by Ragala HQI D.M.M. Dissanayake.
Police then accompanied the man to the house of
Karate Raja where firearms were reported to be hidden. Here the
suspect had extracted a cyanide capsule from a wall in the house
and swallowed it resulting in the police taking him to Nuwara Eliya
hospital, but he had died on the way.
It was reported that the mastermind behind the
gang was an LTTEer known as Sudath.
The gang had earlier reportedly looted three wine
shops in Gonakelle, High Forest and Kandapola.
A police team headed by SSP Nuwara Eliya M. Samaradiwakara
is in charge of investigations.
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