Mount Lavinia Police, TID exposed in Lasantha murder probe

The underhand activities of the Mount Lavinia Police and the Terrorism Investigation Division (TID) at the time the founding Editor of The Sunday Leader Lasantha Wickrematunge was killed, has come to light.

The Mount Lavinia Magistrate was informed last week that the Mount Lavinia Police and the TID had attempted to destroy key information related to the murder.

The Mount Lavinia Police and the TID had been investigating Wickrematunge’s murder before the investigations were handed over to the Police Criminal Investigations Department (CID).

The CID informed the Mount Lavinia Magistrate last week that the Army intelligence had also trailed Wickrematunge when he was on his way to office the day he was killed in January 2008.

The CID also told court that since March 2015 they had recorded statements from more than 950 people, including 295 army intelligence officers.

In March last year the CID had informed the Mount Lavinia Magistrate’s court that former Army commander Field Marshall Sarath Fonseka had revealed that an elite squad operating under former Military Intelligence Director Major General Kapila Hendawitharana had killed Wickrematunge.

The CID had also told court last year that Wickrematunge had been stabbed and not shot as previously recorded in the original death certificate and died due to stabbing to the head with a sharp instrument.