Update: All four officers have since been released on bail by the Wellawaya Magistrate’s Court. Details below.
Four police officers attached to the Monaragala Division Crimes Unit have been arrested on suspicion of accepting a Rs. 500,000 bribe to drop legal action over a cannabis cultivation in Thanamalwila.
Those arrested are two Police Sergeants aged 37 and 45, a 39-year-old Police Constable driver and a 36-year-old Police Constable.
How the case came to light
The Officer-in-Charge of Thanamalwila Police received information about a cannabis cultivation in the Nikawewa-Demodara Wewa area. A police team raided the site on August 11 and arrested a suspect along with cannabis plants.
A search of the surrounding area uncovered three further cannabis cultivations allegedly belonging to the same suspect, plus another plot that had been cut down and burned.
Under questioning, the suspect told police that six officers from the Monaragala Division Crimes Unit had raided the location a day earlier, on August 10, and accepted Rs. 500,000 from him in exchange for not pursuing legal action. He said the officers burned only one of the five cultivations and took the remaining cannabis plants with them.
Second suspect points to same unit
A second man, known as “Kalu” and a resident of the Nikawewa area, was arrested with cannabis during the investigation. He told police that six officers from the Monaragala Division Crimes Unit had instructed him to dry the cannabis, according to Ada Derana.
Both men were produced before the Wellawaya Magistrate’s Court, where detention orders were obtained for further questioning. Information from those interviews led Thanamalwila Police to arrest the four officers, who were also produced before the Wellawaya Magistrate’s Court.
All four released on bail
The court released the four officers on bail later the same day, Ada Derana reported. Each was ordered released on a cash bail of Rs. 50,000 and two surety bails of Rs. 200,000 each.
Further investigations into the alleged bribery are being conducted by Thanamalwila Headquarters Police.
Ada Derana’s two filings on the case describe the officers’ unit differently — the first as the Monaragala Division Crimes Unit, the second as the Monaragala Divisional Anti-Corruption Unit. The outlet has not reconciled the two descriptions, and the earlier form is used above.
