Year on the Web
Year on the Web
Here is an interesting poser for the Inspector General of Police, W. B. Rajaguru.
Is he aware that one of his top cops, one tasked with the responsibility of cracking down on paedophiles, has conveniently cast aside the official norms of the Police Department and begun doing things his own sweet way?
This is not a complaint on the man's yearning to see his name in print or picture on video, though it is the lower ranks who relish such exposure, be it the detection of a kasippu den, the arrest of a murder suspect or some contraband.
This man has begun issuing letters, or I might say, certificates on Police Headquarters letter-heads to foreign nationals. What does it say?
Well! well!! .... something very unusual... not the kind of things the Police are known to do. It is a certificate to say... Mr......... (name given) ..... has not come to our notice of being associated or involved in paedophile activity....
Almost every one indulging in paedophile activity in Sri Lanka has been and are foreign nationals. Their actions have been exposed in the national media.
Is there a new policy at Police Headquarters to issue such letters or certificates every time a foreigner who arrives in Colombo requires it? Is it not possible for one who is deeply involved (and not found out yet) to smooth talk his way into obtaining one? Can it not be used as a licence by crooks to avoid detection or arrest?
If it is PHQ policy (one cannot imagine it to be PA Government's since President Bandaranaike Kumaratunga has ordered a crackdown on paedophiles), there will be more to come.
The levels to which the Police Department has sunk, it will not be far off when murderers and kasippu mudalalis who have gone scot free so far, will flaunt letters or certificates from OICs of Police Stations.
But this is not about kasippu mudalalis and murderers. This is about children, Sri Lanka's precious next generation.
Should not Mr. Rajaguru go into this matter? Not because these are days when the slightest of reasons is enough to put even a DIG on the mat or order transfers en masse.
It is because paedophilia is big business.
Talking of the Police Department, once a show piece in Asia and now a show case for ineptitude and indiscipline, comes an interesting story.
The talk doing the rounds is about DIG Mithra Ariyasinghe, (Intelligence & Security), being unceremoniously sent on compulsory leave. The offence - lending an old uniform (with pips) to a Tamil lady doctor bound for the US.
In this instance, it is a case of lending a uniform. What of unauthorised persons wearing uniforms and stars?
A used Khaki uniform is the easiest to obtain and pips are available for sale openly.
Perhaps the lady doctor should have taken the used Khaki uniform of a Home Guard. With pips and a few alterations, it could have easily looked like a DIGs uniform.
Will children wearing fatigues or khaki and pips during school fancy dress competitions now court arrest? One never knows!!
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