A 40-year-old man has been arrested by Cinnamon Gardens Police on suspicion of filming the roads outside the official residences of the Inspector General of Police and the Chief Justice in Colombo.
The arrest was made on Thursday night, police said. The suspect is a rental driver from the Panadura area, according to NewsFirst.
How he was spotted
A Special Task Force officer on duty at the main entrance of the IGP’s official residence on Wijerama Mawatha, Colombo 07, noticed a luxury vehicle parked nearby and saw the driver apparently recording the road on a mobile phone, Hiru News reported.
The STF officer alerted a traffic police constable posted in the area, who in turn notified the Colombo Emergency Response Division. A night mobile patrol team from Cinnamon Gardens Police was sent to the location and took the man into custody after preliminary inquiries.
His mobile phone was also seized. Police said an examination of the device found video footage of both the IGP’s and the Chief Justice’s official residences and the roads around them.
Suspect says it was a hobby
Under questioning, the man told police he had recorded the videos as a hobby, a senior police officer said. Police said longer questioning produced inconsistencies in his account of where he lived and other details.
Hiru News reported that he is also to undergo a medical examination to establish whether he is a drug user. He was due to be produced before the Aluthkade Magistrate’s Court, NewsFirst reported.
Cinnamon Gardens Police are continuing inquiries. No motive has been established and no charges beyond the initial arrest have been made public.
The arrest is unconnected to the separate investigation into remarks about the IGP by SLPP General Secretary Sagara Kariyawasam, which the Kaduwela Magistrate’s Court cleared police to widen on Thursday.
Sources: Daily Mirror, NewsFirst, Hiru News.
