{"id":207666,"date":"2020-01-22T16:16:11","date_gmt":"2020-01-22T10:46:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=207666"},"modified":"2020-01-23T05:28:15","modified_gmt":"2020-01-22T23:58:15","slug":"the-bent-cops-entrusted-with-fabricating-a-case-to-arrest-shani-abeysekara","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/the-bent-cops-entrusted-with-fabricating-a-case-to-arrest-shani-abeysekara\/","title":{"rendered":"The Bent Cops Entrusted With Fabricating A Case To Arrest Shani Abeysekara"},"content":{"rendered":"

The former Director of the Criminal Investigation Department and decorated police officer SSP Shani Abeysekara<\/span><\/strong><\/a> has been summoned to appear before the CID on Thursday (23) to provide a statement about his telephone call records. Colombo Telegraph learns that the summons is a mere pretense to facilitate his arrest, at the hands of two police officers whose strings are tightly held by the new regime.<\/p>\n

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Shani Abeysekera<\/p><\/div>\n

The department he once led is now accusing him of being a ringleader of what they say was a plot to \u201cfake\u201d the 25 November 2019 abduction of Garnier Banister Francis, the migration officer of the Swiss Embassy<\/span><\/strong><\/a> in Colombo. Their \u201cevidence\u201d of this is that Abeysekara had received a phone call from then Lake House Chairman Krishantha Cooray<\/span><\/strong><\/a> on 18 November, a week before the abduction took place, and had placed another call to IP Nishantha Silva<\/span><\/strong><\/a> on the morning of 23 November, two days before the abduction and day before the latter fled to Switzerland.<\/p>\n

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa<\/span><\/strong><\/a> made no secret of his rage on 24 November at the fact that Nishantha Silva had successfully escaped the country before his government could figure out how to punish him. In a lengthy tirade at the Bellanwila Temple, the incoming President blasted Abeysekara as a cop whose transfer he had to jump through hoops to get executed, and lamented that Silva, who he called a corrupt officer, was able to escape to Switzerland. It was the day following this presidential tirade that Garnier Banister Francis found herself in the crosshairs of masked men demanding to know about Silva\u2019s escape.<\/p>\n