BY Shantha Wijesooriya

Indika Prabath’s relatives suspects the call received to the STF officer who gave the phone to Indika Prabath who was arrested by the STF, to speak was given by Kosgoda Sujee that the STF claims to be an underworld leader and after talking to him Indika Prasad’s face became dark.

Indika Prabath was arrested on 12 October night in 2022. If someone checks the phone logs of all the STF men who participated in the operation to arrest him, we can find out exactly who called Indika and threatened to kill him that day.

At the time of Ratmalane Roha’s arrest, Ratmalane Anju using a mobile belonged to a police officer attached to the north western division called Ratmalane Roha and threatened to kill him. There were posts in the face book stating, 30 million would be given as a reward to anyone who kills Rathmalane Anju Roha.

Indika Prabhat was arrested by the officers of the Police Special Task Force at No. 213 Welegedara Belideniya Kottegoda. That house belongs to Indika’s wife Naotunna Gamarachchige Piyumi Vatsala. 

Indika Prabhat, who was arrested by the Police Special Task Force, was taken to Ahungalla area that night for investigation purposes. The Police Media Spokesperson played the usual recording and said that when Indika tried to shoot at the police by taking a weapon that was buried, Indika Prabhat was shot to death by the police

Indika Prabhat has received threats from Kosgoda Sujee as well as Ahungalle Madush Abrew. It has been revealed that both these parties have the support of men attached to the Police Special Task Force as well as ordinary soldiers.

Indika Prabhat was arrested on suspicion of an incident in which he allegedly shot a person with a T56 firearm near the RIU Tourist Hotel in Ahungalle. The man who was shot near the Ahungalle RIU tourist hotel is the man alleged for taking Kosgoda Sujee’s member Anton in a three wheeler. Anton had been shot by Madush Abrew on a previous occasion. There, the young man who was shot near the RIU Tourist Hotel, was carrying Anton in the three wheeler, and the young man was later shot and killed.

According to CCTV footage, although the shooter who shot and ran away near RIU Hotel in Ahungalla looks similar to Indika Prabhath, he did not have a beard. But Indika Prabath has grown a beard. Kosgoda Suji, who initially suspected Indika Prabath to be the one who shot Anton, had ordered his mates to kill him. Indika Prabath is a skilled shooter and a close associate of Karandeniya Sudda. Indika’s Relatives suspect that Kosgoda Suji may have killed Indika Prabath by influencing the Police Special Task Force because he did not surrender to anyone.

The crime division in charge of North western District has been accused of arresting and killing Rathmalane Gonakovila Roha in Kochchikade area of Negombo for a contract of 40 million rupees. According to the reports, Deshbandu Tennakon, who is under suspension, is behind the assassination plot. A telephone conversation between Deshbandu Tennakon and Ratmalane Kudu Anju is circulating on the internet. Former Inspector General of Police Deshabandu Tennakon has not yet denied that the audio clip containing the abusive conversation is not his.

Indika Prabhat was arrested by the Police Special Task Force not on the basis of the Ahungalle incident, but on the suspicion that he was a member of Karandeniya Sudda’s faction.

Indika’s wife Piyumi Vatsala said that Karandeniye Sudda is a friend of Indika but he is not a crony of Sudda and Indika Prabath has not been involved in any criminal case after 2018. Just as Karandeniye Sudda has not given a contract to Indika, Indika has not taken  any contract of Karandeniye Sudda.

Indika Prabhat was a former Lance Corporal in the Army Corps of Engineers. Before 2018, he was arrested and remanded in custody in connection with a robbery incident. However he has not been charged with drug trafficking.

Indika Prabhat was arrested on the 12 October night in 2022. Since then, his relatives say that the Special Task Force (SPF) personnel illegally stayed at his wife’s Kottagoda residence on October 13 and 14 and stole a gold chain worth five sovereigns, two sets of deck shoes belong to indika Prabath, four 18-carat bangles of Vatsala and Indika Prabhat’s clothes. It is said that the soldiers of the police special task force have eaten all the food in the refrigerator in two days. 

Relatives say that after the gas in Vatsala’s house ran out, the soldiers of the Police Special Task Force cooked and ate using the firewood in the house, and after the coconut ran out, they even asked Vatsala’s mother for money to buy coconuts. Vatsala told us that the Police Special Task Force men who entered Vatsala’s house by force, even took the towels needed for a bath from Vatsala’s closets and even stole the white iron chain that was put around the neck of the house’s pet dog. In her complaint to the Dikwella Police regarding the kidnapping and killing of Indika Prabath, she has stated about the thefts committed by entering the house by force. But so far no police have taken legal action in this regard.

The soldiers of the Special Police Force stayed in Vatsala’s house for two days and cooked and ate while keeping Vatsala and her mother under house arrest. At a time when her husband was abducted and killed, the scenes of those enemies forcibly consuming Vatsala’s belongings and wandering around the house must have aggravated her mental stress.

Galle Akurala Kapila Kumara’s mother’s house was forcibly broken by a group of police special force men on March 27, and his mother, father and several children were kept under house arrest and subjected to physical and mental torture. STF Soldiers stayed at that house for two days on March 27 and 28. During these days Kapila Kumar’s father has asked the STF men if they would like to drink  coconut. However the STF men have refused saying that it is forbidden by law to eat food. On both those days, Special Task Force female soldiers were waiting inside the house of Kapila Kumara’s mother and the male soldiers were in the vehicle that was parked in the yard of that house.

Vatsala’s neighbors had informed the Dikwella police thinking that Vatsala and her mother had been killed. The Dikwella police have come and asked the soldiers of the police special task force who were in the house what happened to Vatsala and her mother. The soldiers of the police special task force have replied to the Dikwella police officers that they were taken and that they are there to protect the house.

The operation to abduct and kill Indika Prabath was led by Senior Deputy Inspector General of Police and lawyer Varuna Jayasundara, the commander of the Special Task Force. Vatsala has testified before the Balapitiya Magistrate’s Court that DIG Jayasundara was in the garden of her house on the day Indika Prabath was abducted and she had seen him in the media before that. The head of the mass raids section of the Colombo Criminal Investigation Department has asked Vatsala to withdraw her testimony against DIG Jayasundara. She is even given protection by the National Authority for the Protection of Victims and Witnesses of Crimes as she has received death threats from rival parties like the Police Special Task Force. When Indika Prabath was killed, she was working in a reputed bank in Dikwella. The report also states that there is an attempt to arrest Vatsala for giving false evidence against DIG Jayasundara.

The Colombo Criminal Investigation Department’s mass raids division has summoned Vatsala to Colombo as well as Dikwella Police and obtained statements. Deputy Inspector General of Police Varuna Jayasundara, who is in command of the police Special Task Force, has launched a major operation to confirm that he was not the one who abducted, shot and killed Indika Prabath. The main evidence is that of Vatsala. DIG Varuna Jayasundara and the Special Task Force should be held responsible if there is any danger to her life.

Balapitiya Magistrate based on the forensic medical report and evidence concluded that the death of Indika Prabath was not a self-defense shooting by the Police Special Task Force, but a deliberate shooting. Indika Prabath was shot and killed by Don Lukshman Amaratunga Kolombage, a sub-inspector of the Police Special Task Force. The Galle Senior Superintendent of Police Elipitiya has been informed to immediately arrest Kolombage and present him before the court, but he has not been presented to the court so far.

With the murder of Indika Prabath, it has become very evident that there are two laws implemented in the country, one law enforced for the capitalists, aristocrats, elites, politicians, Varuna Jayasundara and for sub inspector Kolombage and another law enforced for the common unprivileged people. The working-oppressed people of this country should be educated through the contradictions of the capitalist system and mobilized to overthrow the capitalist system. By overthrowing the capitalist system, not only any socio-economic problems, but also the social conditions related to the emergence of the underworld, including the resulting drug trafficking, cannot be completely eradicated.