Sri Lanka’s police Thursday arrested Deputy Inspector-General Nalaka Silva in connection with a plot to kill his former deputy, Senior Superintendent Prasanna Alwis, official sources said.
Silva’s arrest and subsequent remanding in custody till November 7 had nothing to do with the alleged plot to assassinate President Maithripala Sirisena, but his suspected plan to attack his number two at the Terrorism Investigation Department.
However, prior to his arrest Silva was questioned for several days by the Criminal Investigations Department which is yet to find any evidence to support the claim of a conspiracy to target the president.
Police said Nalaka Silva had allegedly discussed killing Alwis who is reported to have complained against him. Alwis and another DIG Ranmal Kodituwakku have questioned the suitability of Nalaka Silva to join the police.
Silva has been accused of faking his educational qualifications as well as his height.
Police began questioning Silva after a police informant, Namal Kumara, alleged that Silva was plotting to kill Sirisena as well as former secretary to the ministry of defence Gotabhaya Rajapaksa. Detectives, however, have found no evidence to support the assassination claim, police have said.
Ministerial sources have said President Sirisena referred to the alleged plot to kill him and blamed the government for not taking the allegation seriously. The President has reportedly said Indian intelligence agents were trying to bump him off, a claim the government itself has since denied.
An Indian national arrested in connection with his links to police informant Namal Kumara has turned out to be an asylum seeker who had applied to the UN for refugee status.
The Indian identified as Marcili Thomas from the southern state of Kerala had been arrested over his links with Namal Kumara and is being held under detention orders.
Meanwhile, investigators have uncovered some disturbing elements of Namal Kumara’s press conference in Kandy last month.
He claimed that audio recordings of his conversations with DIG Nalaka Silva to kill the president had been wiped off his phone. The CID is now sending his phone to China to verify the claim and retrieve the conversations.
Courtesy: Economy Next
