Police never instructed a mahout to bring his elephant to a checkpoint after a dagger-like weapon was found in his possession during a road search at this year’s Kandy Esala Perahera, Central Province Deputy Inspector General of Police Sudath Masinghe has said.
Speaking at the Kandy District Coordinating Committee meeting on Thursday, DIG Masinghe said officers had stopped and searched the man as part of the security checks run throughout the Perahera season, the Daily Mirror reported.
The officers had asked him only to produce the documents needed to establish that he was a mahout, Masinghe said.
Why the clarification was made
The DIG was responding to social media posts that presented the encounter differently — as officers demanding the mahout produce the elephant itself to prove his occupation. That version spread widely and was treated as a joke online.
Masinghe said the humorous handling of the episode had even helped officers shake off some of the fatigue of Perahera duty.
The Kandy Esala Perahera draws one of the largest annual police deployments in the country. Ahead of this year’s procession, police set out a dedicated security and traffic plan for the pageant and stood up an information system for the Kandy operation, alongside restrictions on liquor sales in the city.
What is not established
The Daily Mirror’s report is a police account of the encounter, and no outlet has published the mahout’s own version. The report does not say on what date the search took place, whether the man was able to produce the documents, whether the weapon was retained or returned, or whether any action followed. It does not identify him, and it does not say what became of the original social media posts.
No other verified newsroom had carried DIG Masinghe’s clarification at the time of writing.
