"Who Is Kidding Whom?": Minister Weerasekera Orders Inquiry Against CID Officers Who Visited Lankadeepa Office Yesterday

September 29, 2021

Minister of Public Security Sarath Weerasekera has instructed the IGP to immediately conduct an investigation into the CID officers who did not comply with the notice issued to journalists and other editors not to question them.

The Minister also instructed IGP Chandana Wickremaratne to conduct an extensive investigation into the incident.

Speaking to media yesterday, Media Minister Dullas Alahapperuma said that the Prime Minister had told him that journalists should never be summoned to the police or the CID for questioning, adding that the Minister in charge of the subject Sarath Weerasekera had previosly stated that CID officers would never be sent to media institutions.

Despite such assurances, a team of officers from the CID visited the Lankadeepa office at Hunupitiya Cross Road last morning (28) to question the Editor-in-Chief of Lankadeepa and its correspondents regarding the statements made by the former Executive Director of the Consumer Affairs Authority, Thushan Gunawardena.

They left the Lankadeepa office yesterday after the Editor of the newspaper informed the officers that he was not prepared to give a statement at that point. The CID officers then told the Editor that they would come on another day.

"We don't know who is kidding whom? It looks as it there is zero coordination between various arms of the government. This kind of incidents indicate that the current administration is in total disarray," a leading political analyst familiar with the matter told Asian Mirror.