A tense situation occurred outside the Government Medical Officers’ Association (GMOA) headquarters yesterday, when a team of policemen in civilian clothing attempted to ‘abduct’ Medical Faculty Students' Action Committee (MFSAC) Convener Ryan Jayalath.

Speaking to the media after the incident, National Trade Union Centre (NTUC) Chairman K. D. Lal Kantha asked if the present government has resorted to the culture of impunity like the previous government, that they were arriving in ‘white vans’ and attempting to abduct people.

“Is Ryan a thief, a robber, a drug addict or a criminal”, asked, “ That they turn up in white vans to abduct him? He is the Convener of a political body engaged in standing up against injustice. Is this how they treat people like that,” he asked.

He said if the Police has come in uniform and explained to those at the GMOA headquarters that they needed to question Ryan Jayalath and took him away in a respectful, law-abiding manner, it was a different story.

“That was not what they did,” a visibly angry Lal Kantha said. “We had just finished our meeting on planned union action against the South Asian Institute of Technology and Medicine (SAITM) on July 25 and stepped out when they turned up in a white can and tried to take him away.”

“It was only when all of us intervened and prevented the abduction that Police in uniform appeared and told us it was Policemen who were dressed in civvies and trying to take Ryan Jayalath away for questioning,” he said.

He said Police has denied the allegation that they had come to ‘abduct’ Ryan Jayalath, but said instead that they had come to lawfully arrested him as there were four warrants for his arrested and he was also wanted for storming the Health Ministry premises.