Ranil renews call for end to political interference in Police

BBC: Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe has called for a halt to political interference in the Police force.

He said that it is important to restore the Police as a dignified force in Sri Lanka.

He was addressing a gathering of newly-elected councillors of the United National Party (UNP) to local government bodies.

Wickremesinghe said that the rule of law in the country has deteriorated and there is no decorum in the Police force.  Referring to the recent Police Special Task Force (STF) raid on the house of Western Provincial Council Road Development Minister Nimal Lanza, Wickremesinghe described it as ‘Negombo Drama’.

He said the STF had raided the Provincial Councillor’s house to investigate an alleged illegal motor spare parts racket.

Media reported that the STF had raided homes of the Provincial Minister and several businessmen in Negombo on information that they were concealing firearms, drugs and other banned goods.

Wickremesinghe said that the following day President Mahinda Rajapaksa, who is the Minister of Defence, had visited Lanza’s house and embraced him to comfort him.

The President has now ordered an investigation into the raid on Lanza’s house in Negombo.

The Opposition Leader said that if it is not the Defence Ministry, he wonders who ordered the STF to go and raid Lanza’s residence.

Wickremesinghe said that late Bharatha Lakshman Premachandra’s murder case is another example of the deterioration of the law in the country.

Meanwhile, Swarna Gunaratna, a relative of the late Premachandra, told Sandesaya that they were not satisfied with the progress of the investigation.

Asked whether the family had an opportunity to explain the situation to President Mahinda Rajapaksa, she said that the President Mahinda Rajapaksa even failed to visit late Premachandra’s residence at Kolonnawa to pay last respect to the deceased.