Police fired at the tyres of a car that failed to stop at Giriulla on Tuesday morning and arrested three people, including two women, after running it down near Pannala. Officers from the Giriulla Police Station acted on information about a drug trafficker, both outlets report.

The driver ignored an order to stop and drove off. Officers pursued the car and brought it to a halt by shooting at one of its tyres, NewsFirst reported. The occupants then refused to open the doors, and officers broke the locks to make the arrests.

The two accounts do not agree on what was found

This is the point on which the reporting diverges, and the gap is large.

Hiru’s figure is roughly three times NewsFirst’s, and the cash — close to a million rupees — appears in Hiru’s report only. Neither outlet attributes its quantity to a named officer or a court filing. Police have not published a figure of their own.

Who was arrested

NewsFirst gives the ages that Hiru omits: a 37-year-old man and two women aged 38 and 16. The man was driving; Hiru places the two women in the rear seat. One of those arrested is a minor. Neither outlet says what role she is alleged to have played, whether she has been produced before a magistrate, or whether she is being dealt with under child protection provisions.

Investigations are continuing, police told NewsFirst.

The arrest happened in traffic

Hiru notes that a video clip recorded the operation. The still issued with its report shows the scene: a silver hatchback stopped in the right-hand lane of a main road in daylight, uniformed officers at its doors, and ordinary traffic still moving past — motorcycles, a three-wheeler, a small goods lorry — with bystanders standing on the verge a few metres away.

Neither outlet reports whether anyone was injured, how many rounds were fired, whether the vehicle was occupied by anyone other than the three arrested, or whether the discharge of firearms has been referred for the routine internal review that normally follows police shooting.

Sources