Acting IGP Senior Deputy IGP Priyantha Weerasuriya says that poverty and low income have been the main factors that have led police and military personnel to join the underworld.

The police said that the police and the army are a group of people who were taken from this society and put on uniforms. Although background reports were called when they were recruited into the police or the army, when they returned to society, they became involved in misconduct, drug trafficking and addiction to alcohol. The Acting IGP said that 176 such police officers who were addicted to drugs have been identified in the police, and about 40 of them have been removed from the police service so far.

The Acting IGP said this while responding to a question raised by Lanka Sky News journalist Shantha Wijesuriya at a special press conference held at the Government Information Department in Polhengoda, Kirulapone this morning (22).

The question raised by the journalist.

You explained the connections that politicians have with the underworld. Politicians only created the underworld specially after 1977. This grew rapidly. But the police also have a big connection with the underworld. Few Police officers have been arrested for the Middeniya incident as well as the Aluth Kade incident. The suspect who killed Ganemulla Sanjeeva is also a former soldier. Former and retired soldiers are involved in the murders and assaults that have taken place in the past.

Also, former police chief Waruna Jayasundara also has been accused. It has been proven that this problem cannot be solved by imposing new laws or by taking the criminals to show their weapons and killing them. Apart from suppression, other reasons have been identified that contributed to the emergence of the underworld?