DIG Nalaka Silva faces arrest; recorded voice authentic, says Govt. Analyst

The Government Analyst has confirmed that the voice of DIG Nalaka Silva, the former head of the Terrorism Investigation Division (TID), contained in recorded telephone conversations over an assassination plot now under probe is authentic and that of the DIG.

In the light of this, DIG Silva faces arrest anytime now, highly placed Police sources said yester- day. He has already been directed to appear before the Colombo Fort Magistrate's Court on October 8. Also asked to appear is Namal Kumarage who said that there was a conspiracy.

The senior Police officer is at the centre of an alleged conspiracy to assassinate President Maithripala Sirisena and former Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa.

A self- styled anti- corruption activist, Namal Kumarage, revealed details of the alleged plot at a news conference in Kandy and played the recorded telephone conversations he had with DIG Silva. It is in those taped conversations that he had quoted DIG Silva as saying how the conspiracy should be carried out.

The Government’s Analyst’s report has already been sent to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) Headquarters. It is expected to be produced in court next week by detectives.

Now the CID has also handed over to the Government Analyst the two Light Machine Guns seized from the TID. The two weapons had been issued from the Police Central Armoury with the approval of the Inspector General Pujith Jayasundera. The Government Analyst has been asked to analyse the weapons and whether they had been used in the recent past.

Detectives are probing whether these weapons, together with a request for Special Task Force training for a group of TID personnel, have any links to the alleged conspiracy.

Also coming under investigation is an official in an important ministry. He is suspected of leaking information to a website banned in Sri Lanka. He had alleged that the conspiracy in question has been engineered by President Sirisena. Detectives say the move is to deflect attention and suggest that the conspiracy was political. CID sources said he is likely to be questioned.