The Criminal Investigations Department (CID) has recorded a statement from former Navy Commander Rear Admiral Jayantha Perera last week in connection with the abduction of two businessmen from Wellampitiya in 2009. The CID has accused Perera of having knowledge of the abductions carried out by the Navy for ransom.
The statement was obtained based on a previous statement provided by Naval intelligence officer Lt. Commander Douglas who was at the Welisara Navy Camp in 2015. In his statement, Douglas said he had gone on to inform Rear Admiral Jayantha Perera, the Navy Commander at the time, of the presence of disassembled vehicle parts in the camp through photographs and a letter signed by Commanding Officer of the Camp at the time Captain Devendra.
During the investigations into the 11 missing youth, the CID sleuths had also received a tip-off of a disassembled van and its parts being hidden within the camp.
Believing it to be original parts of the van used by John Reid, one of the 11 missing youth, the CID team visited the Navy camp only to eventually discover that the vehicle parts were in fact of the van belonging to missing businessman Vadivelu Loganathan and Ratnasami Parmananda who were allegedly abducted in Wellampitiya on January 11, 2009. They also had been in possession of gold sovereigns worth Rs. 2.5 million.
According to Douglas’s statement, however, Perera had not responded to the letter informing him of these vehicle parts leading the CID to believe he had knowledge of the abductions. Instead, Lt. Commander Douglas had been asked by Captain Hewage of Naval Intelligence to leave the matter to them.
The CID has since obtained the letter as evidence. However, Perera has denied he received a letter as being alleged, according to CID sources.
In March this year, during the magisterial inquiry into the case of two abducted businessman from Wellampitiya, Colombo in 2009, IP Nishantha Silva of the CID informed Colombo Additional Magistrate Shalini Perera that several officers in the Navy, including former Commander of the Navy Rear Admiral Jayantha Perera and former Naval Intelligence Director Rear Admiral Ananda Guruge who is also a witness in the case of the 11 missing youth had knowledge of the abductions.
According to information presented before the courts by investigators, following a court order to search in early 2016, parts of a van were detected in a secured room within the quarters used by Navy Intelligence Officials at the Welisara Navy Camp.