Land and houses in the Dambulla area belonging to suspected drug trafficker Shiran Basik have been seized by the Central Crime Investigation Bureau (CCIB), with entry prohibited pending further investigations, the Daily Mirror reported.
The seizure took place on Friday, according to the paper’s Saturday filing. Investigators prohibited entry into three blocks of land and two houses at Thittawlgolla in Dambulla.
Police said they obtained a court order to seize the properties after investigating illegal assets belonging to the suspect. The notice posted at the properties stated that owners could claim their rights to the land and buildings through action in the High Court — the standard route left open to third parties who say they hold a legitimate interest in restrained assets.
Basik was arrested by Dubai security forces and handed over to Sri Lanka Police in August.
A separate order two days earlier
Hiru News reported on 8 October that property worth more than Rs. 100 million, said to have been bought in the names of Basik’s father and a private tuition-class teacher, had been prohibited for a period of 14 days. Police told Hiru those assets comprise a building, a house, a hotel and two blocks of land, and that the CCIB is conducting the investigation.
The two filings are two days apart and describe different breakdowns of property — three lands and two houses in the Daily Mirror’s account, against a building, house, hotel and two lands in Hiru’s. Neither outlet cross-references the other, and neither states whether the Dambulla seizure forms part of the Rs. 100 million restraint or is a separate action. This newsroom has not merged the two sets of figures.
The pattern of the investigation
The state has been moving against assets held in other people’s names rather than against Basik alone, which is the usual method once a principal is in custody. In September the Illegal Assets Division froze Rs. 100 million in property held by his associate Nalin Arjuna at Kadawatha and Kelaniya — a distinct action, by a different unit, over different properties. The CCIB has separately questioned former MP Arundika Fernando in connection with the same probe, and Basik features in a wider illegal-assets investigation covering 25 alleged organised crime figures.
Not reported
Neither filing names the court that issued the order, gives a value for the Dambulla properties specifically, or says in whose name they were registered. Neither reports whether the 14-day restraint has been extended, which it would need to be to survive beyond 22 October, nor whether anyone has come forward to claim an interest in the seized land. Neither carries a response from Basik or his lawyers, and neither states his current place of detention or the status of any criminal charges against him.
