Crooked cops arrested - with stolen goods

[TamilNet, Thursday, 15 January 1998, 23:59 GMT]
A Sri Lankan Police officer and three Police constables were arrested near Anuradhapura on Tuesday January 13 while transporting furniture and electrical goods removed from the homes of Tamil civilians who fled Omanthai, six kilometers north of Vavuniya, in May last year when the SLA launched Operation Jayasikurui to take control of the Vavuniya - Jaffna highway.

The Policemen had been on their way to Kurunagala, in the northwestern province, with the stolen goods, when they were arrested by the Police on a tip off at the Second Milepost at Anuradhapura.

There have been regular reports of the army and Police stripping the homes of Tamils who have fled areas captured by the government forces in the on going war in the north and east of the island.

Tamil politicians complained last year that Tamil houses north of Vavuniya, in areas captured by the army, in Operation Jayasikurui were being completely ransacked by the Police.

Normally, the Police and the Military Police tend to turn a blind eye on the massive quantities of furniture, electrical goods and timber removed from Tamil houses in areas brought under the army's control.

Sources in Vavuniya say that in this instance, rivalry between officer who was arrested and one of his seniors led to the interception at Anuradhapura on Tuesday.

The senior officer, according to the sources, had engineered the arrest to get even.