The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) has so far managed to collect clear facial images of 20 people involved in the arson attack on the private residence of President Ranil Wickremesinghe at Fifth Lane, Kollupitiya on July 9.
They have been collected after a careful investigation of the videos and photos released to social media by the people who were present at the time of the arson attack and the unedited footage obtained from mass media organisations.
CID sources said they have clear facial images of 20 people who seem to be directly involved in the attack.
Information from the Criminal Investigation Department stated that the Police Headquarters will soon release those pictures to the media and seek public assistance to identify them.
The suspects are to be arrested after identifying them. The private house of the President was set on fire on the 9th of July.
The Criminal Investigation Department revealed that a son of a former Deputy Minister was involved in the arson attack and he had subsequently left for Dubai the next day.
Information has also been received that the suspect has gone to England from Dubai.
The Criminal Investigation Department has also requested assistance from the International Police to bring the suspect to Sri Lanka.
Meanwhile, the CID has also collected clear facial images of 10 people who are said to be involved in attack on Prime Minister’s office at Flower Road. They are suspected to have stolen or destroyed many important Government documents and caused extensive damage to property. It has been identified that several people involved in the ‘Aragalaya’ are among them.
The attention of the Criminal Investigation Department has been focused on obtaining public assistance to uncover the identity of the suspects, including those identified only by their faces. Information from the Criminal Investigation Department stated that these identifications were made from unedited footage obtained from mass media and video footage shared on social media.
Accordingly, the photos are scheduled to be released to the mass media through the Police Headquarters in the coming days.
The Prime Minister’s office was broken into and its property damaged on July 13.
