TIU Sergeant nabbed for bribery
Rafik Jalaldeen
Two Police officers including a Police Sergeant attached to the
Terrorist Investigation Unit (TIU) at the Keselwatta Police Station were
arrested by bribery sleuths on Tuesday for soliciting Rs. 100,000 as a
gratification from a trishaw driver ostensibly to protect him from the
law.
Director, Commission to Investigate Allegation or Corruption, SSP
Neville Guruge said a trishaw driver was arrested at the Technical
Junction by three Police officers who were clad in civil and demanded to
pay Rs. 150,000 to release him and his three-wheeler. "The trishaw
driver had four passports in his possession as he was attached to a
foreign employment agency. Believing that he is a foreign employment
agent, the three Police officers of the TIU demanded a sum of Rs.
150,000 as a bribe to refrain from taking legal action. The trishaw
driver pleaded to reduce the amount and the three Police officers
settled for Rs. 100,000 and released the driver and kept the
three-wheeler and ordered him to pay the money before 6.30 p.m. on the
same day," SSP Neville Guruge told the Daily News.
A team from the Bribery Commission was deployed to arrest the Police
officers following a complaint lodged by the trishaw driver. "The
bribery sleuths arrested a PS and a PC while accepting Rs. 100,000 from
the trishaw driver in front of the Keselwatta Police Station," SSP
Guruge added.
He said that Sub Inspector in-charge of the TIU at the Keselwatta
Police Station who demanded the gratification was not present at the
scene. "If some Police officers working at the TIU are corrupt in this
way, terrorists might easily carry out their activities using such
Police officers," SSP Guruge pointed out.
The suspects were produced before Hulftsdrop Magistrate Nishantha
Hapuarachchi and remanded until June 25.
|