Driver's ordeal after being labelled a druggie
How safe are the ordinary law-abiding citizens from acting Inspector General of Police, Deshabandu Tennekoon’s weeklong drive to reign in drug peddlars and those in the criminal underworld?
Here is a story that highlights that the public would have to fear not only the drug lords but sometimes even the Police who want to catch them.
Sampath (not his real name) is the driver of a professional who lives in Nugegoda. His chores last Wednesday was to take the car, rented from a private source, for repairs to a garage not far from Battaramulla town. The complaint – after running for a short distance, the engine was overheating, and the vehicle was stalling on the road. It would take at least a minimum of three hours for it to cool down. Only then would it start. Confident that they had resolved the issue, the garage released the vehicle. The time was around 4.10 p.m.
The driver was on his way to Wijerama along Jaya Road that connects Old Kottawa Road. The engine overheated and stalled near the power station, barely a kilometre away. With the help of passersby, he moved the vehicle to a side and waited. Through experience, he knew he would have to wait a few hours.
As he stood near the vehicle, in came three motorcycles mounted by two men in each with civilian clothes. The time was past 7 p.m. The one on the first motorcycle, sporting a beard, asked the driver “Umba kudu karayek neyda. Methana Mokadda karanney” You are a druggie. What are you doing here?” His explanation that he was waiting till the engine cooled down was of no avail. Not even his plea that the vehicle belonged to a retired Major General and was being hired by his employer, a professional. “Api owa passey balagamu,” he retorted.
Then the bearded person, said they were from a unit (he did not identify) that had the power to go to any part of the country and search for anyone, be it high or low. The driver was forced to open the door and start the engine. This time, to his bad luck, the engine started on the second try. Then the bearded person and another got into the vehicle. They also ‘ordered’ two other persons who they have “arrested” earlier to get into the car. Soon, it became a mobile Police Station. As the driver cris-crossed the by lanes and small roads, (which he cannot identify), he was under interrogation. The language used was “umba.” The driver was shivering. All this while, the two telephones in the car (one used to contact the driver and the other his personal number) were ringing. The captors did not allow the driver to answer the calls. At one point, they checked whether the phone numbers in the phones held by the two “suspects” were there in the two phones. There were no calls.
“The way they conducted themselves, I feared someone would introduce some drugs on me and implicate me,” Sampath told the Sunday Times. “That is why I addressed all of them as Buddhu Mahaththuru and worshipped them,” said Sampath. He said he had even forgotten the name of the person he was working for the way he was handled. “Then their tone changed. They started calling me Putha and later Malli. All this while I was driving,” Sampath said. He added that “occasionally one of the men would point at me and tell the suspects that they also should behave well like me.” While the interrogation went on, I realized they were looking for more suspects. “I told them that my petrol level had dropped to just one bar,” said Sampath. They gave me directions on how to get to Mirihana Police area and then to where I worked,” said Sampath. The time was 10.20 p.m.
Acting Police Chief Deshabandu must reign in his over enthusiastic officers and men before he cracks down on drug peddlars and narcotic dealers. In this instance, he used the car they seized and petrol for his crackdown operation. His men suspected the driver, who is none other than the son of a Police Sergeant of a Police Station in the Colombo District. The car owner is a retired Major General. The professional is a journalist attached to the Sunday Times. These could have been easily verified by his men. They seemed not interested.