The Police Illegal Assets Investigation Division has issued a temporary order freezing property and bank accounts allegedly belonging to Nirmala Prasanga, the organised crime and drug trafficking suspect known as ‘Backhoe Saman’, Hiru News reported.
The order took effect on 5 October and runs for 14 working days.
What was frozen
Two categories of asset are covered: a Mercedes-Benz valued at approximately Rs. 20 million, and two fixed deposits totalling Rs. 20 million held at two private banks. On the report’s own figures the order therefore reaches about Rs. 40 million in assets.
Investigators say the assets were acquired and held under the name of a woman identified as Nimanthi Fonseka. The report does not state her relationship to the suspect, and does not say she faces any allegation herself.
The investigation is being conducted under the supervision of the Director of the Illegal Assets Investigation Division, Senior Superintendent of Police C.W. Wickramasekara.
One detail that does not match the record
Hiru describes Prasanga as having been “recently arrested in Indonesia.” That arrest is not recent. It was reported here on 13 August, when police said he had been detained in Indonesia alongside a man known as ‘Kehelbaddara Padme’ over the killing of Ganemulla Sanjeewa — and by that date he was already held at the Boossa high-security prison in Sri Lanka, not abroad.
He was among nine high-risk inmates moved earlier this year to the high-security facility at Welisara built for prisoners accused of directing criminal networks from inside jail. Police have also named him in connection with the killings of a man known as ‘Kajjaa’ and his two children.
The asset freeze is the first financial action in this case reported since his mother was shot dead at Middeniya on 12 August, a killing police attributed to a suspected revenge motive.
Not reported
The report does not give the legal provision the order was made under, say whether it can be extended beyond the 14 working days, or state whether the vehicle and deposits have been taken into custody or merely restrained. It does not identify Nimanthi Fonseka beyond her name, carry any response from her or from the suspect’s lawyers, or set out the current status of the criminal cases against Prasanga.
Ada Derana also filed on the freeze, but its site has returned a CloudFront block to this desk for twelve consecutive days, so that report could not be verified or cited.
