News
Excise officers and Police clash over drug-raid-chase shooting and arrests
View(s):- Excise Dept says police action allowed drug traffickers to escape police
say Excise officers were arrested while trying to flee the scene
By Sandun Jayawardana
As the fallout continues from this week’s arrest of four Excise Department officers in relation to a shooting incident during a drug raid in Bambalapitiya, Excise officers are calling on the Inspector General of Police (IGP) to take urgent action to ensure that such incidents do not recur.
Cops and Excise officials: (Pic 1) CCTV footage showed Excise officers blocking the path of the car, but the driver reversed the car and sped along the busy road. (Pic 2) The suspects then abandoned the car and got into a three-wheeler.
On Wednesday, Colombo’s Additional Magistrate Manjula Ratnayake ordered the Excise Department to seek the Attorney General’s advice regarding seven Police officers the Department has named as having obstructed its officers from carrying out their duties during the drug raid. The Excise Department has alleged that the move by Police to arrest four of its officers involved in the raid allowed two suspects to escape.
The four Excise officers were arrested on Monday evening after they opened fire on a car carrying suspected drug traffickers who were attempting to escape. The incident occurred near a filling station along Marine Drive, Bambalapitiya. CCTV footage from the scene shows the Excise officers, who were in a van, blocking the path of the car. Three officers were seen getting down and trying to approach the car but the driver reversed the car and sped along the busy road, hotly pursued by the officers, at least one of whom had his weapon drawn and pointed at the car.
Police later said an Excise Department Inspector and three officers were arrested over the shooting incident. Police also found the car used by the suspected drug traffickers abandoned in Wellawatta, about 2 kilometres from the scene where the shooting occurred.
Acting Police Spokesman and Deputy Inspector General Ruwan Gunasekara said CCTV footage from the area showed two suspects who were in the vehicle abandoning it and getting into a three-wheeler. The three-wheeler and its driver had been taken into police custody.
Meanwhile, the car used by the suspects has been handed over to the Excise Department on a court order.
The four Excise officers were produced in the Mount Lavinia Magistrate’s Court, where they were released on two personal bails of Rs. 1 million each. The court also imposed an overseas travel ban on them. The case was re-fixed for August 28.
The four arrested officers were part of an eight-member team from the Excise Department’s Narcotics Unit. They were deployed to conduct a drug raid, Excise Department Spokesman Kapila Kumarasinghe told the Sunday Times. They had initially arrested one suspect with 150 grams of heroin. Based on the information he provided, they had traced a car in Bambalapitiya while it was carrying suspected drug traffickers. It was when they tried to arrest them that the incident occurred, he said.
Mr Kumarasinghe noted that there is no legal requirement for the officers, who were in civvies, to inform the Police regarding their operation. Moreover, Excise officers are authorised to carry and use firearms. “They were firing at the vehicle’s tyres in an effort to stop it getting away. Our officers are trained in firearms use at Police training colleges. Unfortunately, the arrest of the officers prevented them from arresting the suspects who had fled.”
Police had responded to reports that a group of unidentified persons in a van had opened fire on a car before fleeing the scene, a senior Police source noted. Given the initial report of the incident, responding officers had located and stopped the van involved in the shooting and arrested the suspects, the source said.
An Excise Department officer privy to the drug raid, though, accused the Police of arresting the Excise officers even after they clearly identified themselves and produced their official identity cards.
“After they had established their identity, what the Police should have done was to assist our officers to track down and arrest the suspects who had fled the scene. They could have asked our officers to come to make a statement regarding the shooting to the Bambalapitiya Police afterwards. Instead, they were arrested and produced in court.”
There have been “misunderstandings” between Excise officers and Police before but this was the most serious issue in recent times, the source said. Usually, police allow Excise officers to go about their business after verifying their identities.
The officer further alleged that CCTV footage of the two suspects abandoning their car shows them carrying a parcel, suspected to be heroin. “We lost our chance to arrest them and probably recover more heroin due to the Police action,” he claimed.
Acting Police Spokesman Gunasekara told the media earlier that the van carrying the Excise officers had been taken into custody while fleeing the scene of the incident, but the Excise Department source vehemently disputed this claim. “If they wanted to flee the scene, they could have done so easily. They were searching for the vehicle that got away.”
The IGP issued a circular in the 1990s briefing the Police on the Excise officers’ roles and activities. This included information that they were authorised to carry firearms and the department had units whose officers conducted operations in civvies.
Given the recent incident, the source said it would be opportune for the present IGP to reissue that circular. “But we need urgent intervention at the highest levels to prevent this situation from creating bad blood between the two departments. That is why we would like to see discussions between senior officers of the Excise Department and the IGP at the earliest to ensure this sort of situation does not recur,” he said.
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