Police probe death threats to journalist

Police Headquarters has ordered an immediate investigation into a complaint made by The Island Anuradhapura correspondent Cyril Basnayake that he and his family had received death threats, DIG N. K. Illangakone said.

Basnayake had complained that the death threats followed a complaint he had made to the Anuradhapura police against a gang of criminal elements who had encroached an eight-acre plot of land owned by him and their preventing him from entering his land. A junior police officer at the Anuradhapura police station was trying to suppress investigations into the complaint made by him, he has said.

A senior police officer yesterday had met Basnayake and inquired into the whole incident. He told The Island that the law of the jungle cannot be allowed to rule in this case or in any other similar case.