A seven-day detention order has been obtained for the chairman of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party’s Medirigiriya Electoral Organisation, who was arrested on suspicion of drug trafficking, NewsFirst reported.
Chinthaka Terence Wijeratne was detained following submissions made before court, police said. His wife, who was arrested in connection with the same incident, has been remanded in custody.
Arrested on a motorcycle in Hingurakgoda
The couple was taken into custody in Hingurakgoda while allegedly transporting drugs on a motorcycle, according to police.
Officers seized 15 grams of heroin and 15 grams of “ice”, or crystal methamphetamine, from their possession.
Medirigiriya and Hingurakgoda are neighbouring electorates in the Polonnaruwa District, in the country’s North Central Province.
Detention orders in narcotics cases
Detention orders allow police to hold a suspect for questioning outside the normal remand process, and are routinely sought in narcotics investigations where officers are working to identify a supply chain. The order in this case runs for seven days.
The arrest of a serving electoral organiser is politically significant for the SLFP, once Sri Lanka’s dominant governing party, which has been reduced to a marginal parliamentary presence and has faced a series of internal disputes and defections. A Wattala-based party figure was remanded in June in an unrelated foreign-employment fraud case.
The party has not issued a statement on the arrest, and no court date for the wider case has been reported. Police have not said whether further suspects are being sought.
Sources: NewsFirst.
