Police probe into attempt on PM’s life reveal..

Police investigating an LTTE attempt on Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickramanayake’s life said the former director of the National Film Corporation, now in custody in connection with the attempt, had received several calls from a JVP MP shortly after his arrest.
Investigators said that the suspect received five calls within minutes of the police arresting him late last week.

They said the suspect’s mobile phone had registered the MP’s number. Police would shortly obtain permission from Speaker W. J. M. Lokubandara to question the national list MP.

Investigations have revealed that the then Cultural Affairs Minister Vijitha Herath had appointed the suspect to the NFC directorate on the recommendation made by his colleague, sources said.

According to the investigators, the suspect had links with the LTTE and made use of his appointment to facilitate several LTTE operations in Colombo. The suspect had been a director of the National Film Corporation during Vijitha Herath’s tenure as the Cultural Affairs Minister in the 2004-2005 period.

The suspect had admitted that he was a JVP member and attended classes in 1975 in Jaffna and had links with the party and LTTE.

Earlier in the day, at a press conference, JVP General Secretary Tilvin Silva said that the LTTE suspect was not a member of the JVP. "There was no Tamil unit in the NFC when our comrade became the Cultural Affairs Minister. We recruited the person in question to commence a Tamil unit.


He was not a member of our party. There are many people who participated in our classes but all of them are not our members."

"We were suspicious of this person and sought clearance from the police intelligence but they never responded to request. In fact, at that time, Sunil S. Sirisena, additional Secretary to the Ministry of Defence had been the Chairman of the NFC," he said.

However, the sources in the State Intelligence Service denied the excuse made by the JVP and said that they had never asked for such clearance on the suspect.

Silva said his statement at the press conference was made on the assurance given by MP Herath that he had called for clearance.

When contacted, MP Herath said he had no documentary proof to prove the request because it was made in 2005 and the documents were in the NFC’s possession.

An LTTE intelligence wing cadre, under interrogation, had implicated the former NFC director. The police had kept the arrest of the intelligence wing cadre under wraps until they arrested the former NFC director. Investigators had recovered 9.5 kilograms of high explosives and a stock of steel balls from the suspects who revealed details of bombing operations mounted by the LTTE in the city and its suburbs. They had led the investigators to a shop on the top floor of a supermarket in the Kotahena police area where the intelligence wing cadre had turned out a range of explosive devices, particularly suicide kits.