CID grills Gajanayake

The government yesterday took a dramatic step in the probe on the spate of abductions, ransom demands and killings when the CID questioned a former Air Force officer who is alleged to have been involved in these crimes. Defence spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella told The Sunday Times last night former Air Force Squadron Leader Nishantha Gajanayaka was being questioned and his statement recorded.

“As a responsible government we have to look into the allegations against him as his name has been mentioned in Parliament,” Mr. Rambukwella said. The move came after UNP parliamentarian Lakshman Seneviratne charged in parliament on Thursday that the former Air Force officer was carrying out the criminal operations from a Colombo hotel room and that a non-cabinet minister’s brother was paying the bill.

The MP charged that the ex-officer was being provided security by the police and the government should take full responsibility for it. He pointed out that the two Red Cross workers who were killed last week had been staying at the same hotel from where this ex-officer was operating. Mr. Gajanayake was grilled after the CID took two eyewitnesses to the Fort Railway station where the abductions of the two Red Cross workers took place and also questioned some railway employees.

Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayake is scheduled to hold a news conference today to explain the government’s position on the spate of abductions, ransom demands and killings in the wake of national and international condemnation of the recent crimes.

The international uproar increased with the eviction of more than 300 Tamils from Colombo on Thursday and the shocking news the next day that the bodies of nine people – executed with their eyes blindfolded and hands tied behind their backs – had been found at Wennappuwa.

The bodies of the seven men and two women were brought to the Ragama hospital yesterday. A Presidential Office spokesman told The Sunday Times that President Mahinda Rajapaksa had ordered a full inquiry as he believed this massacre too was an attempt to embarrass him and the government ahead of his visit to Geneva to address an ILO conference.

President Rajapaksa also ordered that evicted Tamils be brought back to Colombo immediately and said he had called for an explanation from Police Chief Victor Perera.

But the IGP yesterday declined any comment, saying he was named as a respondent in a fundamental rights case where the Supreme Court on Friday ordered that the eviction process be stopped. According to sources in the President’s Office, Mr. Rajapaksa would take disciplinary action against any officials who were found guilty of exceeding their authority in this controversial eviction.

The evicted Tamils were brought back to Colombo early yesterday with the government agents of Vavuniya and Trincomalee organizing their transport.

Their names were registered at the police stations in Wellawatte, Kotahena, Fort and Pettah. They were later allowed to go back to their lodges.The eviction drew tough condemnation from the United States, the European Union, Norway and other countries, causing severe embarrassment to the government.