CID grills Gota over security firm

Saturday, 14 February 2015 01:40 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

The police Criminal Investigations Department (CID) questioned former Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa yesterday on the weapons armoury maintained by a security firm which he had launched while he was in office. Rajapaksa, the brother of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, was to be questioned at his residence in Colombo over the armoury maintained by Avant-Garde Security firms and his alleged links with Rakna Lanka Ltd. The security firms are under investigation over its floating armoury and other alleged malpractices during the rule of the former Government.

Avant-Garde and Rakna Lanka are private security firms in the island nation that provide security to ships against Somali pirates. The companies were formed in 2012 to replace the foreign companies which ran these services. Their weapons were also stored in the armoury of the Sri Lanka Navy. The police last month seized a large haul of weapons found inside 12 containers on a ship in the southern part of the island and investigations revealed that the weapons belonged to the Avant-Garde security firm. The police said that the weapons were found on the ‘Mahanuwara Naukawa’ ship which is registered in Sri Lanka and added that 3000 weapons were found in the 12 containers. The police, soon after, also searched the Rakna Lanka armoury located in Colombo for illegally stored weapons.