Retired police officers charged with stealing exhibits

A retired Police Inspector and a Sub-Inspector of Police have recently been arrested by the Colombo South Divisional Criminal Investigation Bureau in connection with the disappearance of a stock of case exhibits, valued at over ten million rupees, from the exhibit room of the Borella Police Station. These two officers, who were in charge of the said exhibit room approximately six years ago, specifically in the years 2020 and 2021, have thus been apprehended.

Police sources confirm that the missing items include over six hundred thousand rupees, money used to deploy informants, local and foreign liquor bottles, and several bicycles. Investigations into this fraud commenced following a special message issued by the Inspector General of Police on December 15, 2023, and a notification from the Audit Management Committee. Accordingly, these arrests were carried out by a team including Chief Police Inspector Neville Priyantha, the OIC of the Colombo South Divisional Criminal Investigation Bureau, under the orders of Mr. Lucien Sooriyabandara, Senior Superintendent of Police in charge of Colombo South.

Police investigations have revealed that these two retired officers are directly responsible for 47 out of a total of 57 missing case exhibits. Charges leveled against them include taking the relevant case exhibits under the guise of presenting them to court and keeping them for their personal use, as well as failing to properly record them in police documents. Furthermore, a broad investigation is currently underway regarding eight other police officers who were in charge of the exhibit room during the relevant period.

The suspects thus arrested are aged 63 and 64 years and are residents of Ihala Imbulgoda and Hingurana, Ampara areas. These two arrested retired police officers are scheduled to be produced before the Colombo Chief Magistrate's Court in due course.