A tense situation was reported among the security forces personnel yesterday (15) due to a suspicious van parked near the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA), Katunayake at the time when the two criminals Nandun Chintaka alias Harak Kata and Salindu Malshika alias Kudu Salindu were brought back.

However, after a special investigation, it has been revealed that the van was carrying a group of intelligence agencies that had arrived to join in the same operation.

It was reported that special security measures were implemented until the two suspects were brought to Colombo from BIA.

More flight delays…

Two ASPs and two CIs of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) and the Police Special Task Force (STF) were responsible for bringing these underworld leaders to Sri Lanka.

Flight UL 142, which was scheduled to depart for Sri Lanka from Mumbai Airport at 3.30 am yesterday, was delayed for almost two hours due to the sudden death of a passenger on board.

It is said that these two criminals were already detained in the aircraft under the protection of the four officers.

To assist these officers, two Madagascar police officers were also present during the entire flight.

After the delay, the flight left at 5.30 in the morning.

The officers who were in charge of bringing the two underworld leaders to Sri Lanka had started the first flight from Madagascar to Sri Lanka on March 11 at around 8.00 pm local time.

The destination of the first flight was Nairobi, Kenya.

Meanwhile, the Pakistani drug traffickers had launched an operation to rescue Harak Kata and others by spending millions of dollars on the local authorities in Madagascar.

After arriving at Nairobi Airport, they had to stay at the airport for 10 hours to board the next flight to Mumbai, India.

However, at the last moment, the officials were forced to wait for another eight hours for the next flight as the two suspects were refused entry to the flight.

During that time, the provision of food and drinks to the suspects and all other needs were performed under the supervision of the security personnel.

Although the plane tickets were booked to leave Mumbai in the morning of March 14, the officials accompanying the suspects had missed the flight due to the delay experienced at the Nairobi airport.

India deploys Special Intelligence Unit…

Accordingly, the Indian Government has provided assistance at diplomatic level to detain the two underworld leaders at the Mumbai Airport for more than 24 hours.

The officials of the Sri Lanka High Commission in India also provided assistance while a Special intelligence Unit was deployed for the security of the airport.

After being taken from the Airport to the Colombo Judicial Medical Officer for examination, Harak Kata and Kudu Salindu were brought to the CID Headquarters for further investigations.

President signs detention orders

President Ranil Wickremesinghe has signed the recommendation given by the Defence Ministry at 4.00 pm yesterday (15) to detain and interrogate the two suspects under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) for 90 days.

Meanwhile, it was reported that a team of eight lawyers, including four president’s counsels, would represent Harak Kata and Kudu Salindu.

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Harak Kata & Kudu Salindu brought back to Sri Lanka