Mystery surrounds the July 21 broad daylight abduction of a former Inspector attached to the elite Special Task Force (STF), from a barber’s saloon at Pelawatte, Battaramulla.
Police have so far drawn a blank. According to STF Commandant Chandrasiri Ranawana, they have had no contact with the IP, who left the force about five years ago and all investigations into his disappearance were being handled by the police.
It is learnt that Inspector General of Police N. K. Illangakoon has ordered the Criminal Investigations Department and the Thalangama police to probe the abduction.
OIC of the Thalangama police, Inspector Upul Perera, said that investigations had been launched, in several directions, into the abduction of Rohan Thusitha Kumarasinghe from a barbershop in Pelawatte on July 21.
He said that one of his relatives who was with him at the time had reported his abduction to the police.
Kumarasinghe is from Kekirawa and lived in an apartment on Elvitigala Mawatha with his wife, IP Perera said.
IP?Perera said that the police had searched his home, too, and found that he had not taken any of his personal valuables with him when he went for a haircut.
According to a person close to Kumarasinghe he went for a haircut at a barbershop down a lane opposite the Cool Planet Department store at Pelawatte, around 2.45 p.m. and two persons in civvies had come and flashed their IDs saying they were from the police and had asked him to come out. When he went out a group bundled him into an unregistered vehicle. He grappled with his abductors, but one of them had hit him on the head with something like a walkie-talkie. The incident took place while people in adjoining shops were watching in shock. The relative who accompanied him has said that the men were armed.
The question that sleuths are asking themselves is why a man who was living at luxury Trillium Residencies with his wealthy wife should come all the way to a small barbershop in Pelawatte for a haircut.
By Dasun Edirisinghe/IS