It is believed that the abduction had been carried out by Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa’s “white van clan” that has been assigned to crack down on the persons involved in large scale extortion rackets together with the Minister.
A senior official from the Defence Ministry said the Defence Secretary had received information that Panadura Donald was involved n extorting monies from businessmen who come for auctions at the Colombo Port. The Defence Secretary had on several occasions asked Donald to stop the extortion racket.
Although an attempt was made to abduct him from near the Odel shopping complex, he had managed to escape with the help of some of his friends.
However, another group of persons affiliated to Mervyn who are involved in extorting monies are to be abducted following information revealed by one of the Minister’s coordinating secretaries, Amal Rodrigo who was also abducted and released last month.
Although the Chairman and several UPFA councilors of the Kelaniya Pradeshiya Sabha were also in the list of persons to be abducted, they have managed to get “bail” from the Defence Secretary after giving him details about the misdeeds that take place in Kelaniya.
UPFA councilor of the Kelaniya Pradeshiya Sabha told us that even the President was not aware of some of the details unraveled by the Defence Secretary with regard to the underworld and extortion.
He added that the President has asked the Defence Secretary not to harm Mervyn Silva although there were a large number of allegations against him