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Sri Lanka Army

Defender of the Nation

NORTHERN PUBLIC WARNED AGAINST IMPOSTERS &;amp; EXTORTIONISTS

Press Release

Members of the general public in Kilinochchi, Mullaittivu, Vavuniya and Jaffna districts are warned against certain manipulative moves, currently set in motion in above areas by an organized ring of swindlers, aimed at exploiting grievances or concerns of war-affected northern civilians, including parents who have not yet been able to trace whereabouts of their missing ones.

Evidence as regards such fraudulent practices came to light recently at Kanakapuram, Kilinochchi when Police sleuths, assisted by Security Forces swooped and arrested three suspects, involved in an attempt of extorting ransom from over 300 relatives of missing persons against their release back to them on 14th November 2010.

Security Forces in 57 Division on 7th November was told that an imposter, claiming himself to be ‘Major Seelan in the Army,’ has allegedly revealed that a total of about 2000 those missing persons were still being detained by him and preparations were now on to release them back to relatives on 14th November at 6.00 a.m. against payments, earlier prescribed separately to each of those relatives.

For implementation of this machination, the Army imposter after giving a specific mobile phone number to the aggrieved parties, has pretty smartly appointed school principals at Akkarayan Tamil Mixed Maha Vidyalaya, Akkarayan Maha Vidyalaya, Kilinochchi Maha Vidyalaya, Urthipuram Maha Vidyalaya, Kanakapuram Maha Vidyalaya and Kilinochchi Hindu Maha Vidyalaya for coordination, thereby adding more weight and confidence to the fraud, masterminded by the imposter.

The imposter, ‘Major Seelan’ on 14th November as anticipated however failed to show up before some 300 relatives of the missing who by then had gathered at Kanakapuram Maha Vidyalaya to receive their released family members against promised ransoms, but had managed to dispatch three of his representatives, P. Nimalan (Nirveli, Jaffna), J. Kumareshan (Mallavi) and A. Srikanthan (Puthukudiyiruppu) for collection of extortions/ransom money.

Kilinochchi Policemen, working in close cooperation with Security Forces and the respective school principal, swiftly moved in, and arrested those three representative swindlers. The Kilinochchi Police have commenced extensive investigations into the fraud.

Several individual and separate instances of this nature and abduction attempts, most of them using mobile phones, have been reported in the recent past. The Police in areas such as Jaffna town, Point Pedro, Chavakachcheri, Manipai, Arali, Pallai, Vadukkotai, Kayts, Ellapanmaradankulam, Vavuniya and Mallavi are conducting thorough investigations into these complaints.

These kinds of criminal acts, needless to reiterate, are perpetuated by certain interested sections with the ulterior motive of embarrassing and tarnishing the good relations and positive public image of the Security Forces, Police and law enforcement authorities. Similarly, concerted attempts of those elements appear targeted at Security Forces who are highly effective in nabbing such acts or perpetrators.

The public are therefore kindly advised to alert or notify the nearest Police Station or the Security Force point through, Tel. 0773952175/024-2222567/025-3898812 (Wanni), 021-2229693 (Jaffna) and 027-2259126 (East) in case of such emergencies or any criminal attempts. (Ends)