Policemen sell their camp defences

[TamilNet, Friday, 08 September 2000, 18:28 GMT]
Three military trained Policemen, including an officer, were arrested by the Mannar Police Friday for illegally selling concertina from the defences of their detachment. The Officer in Charge (OIC) of the Fifth Mile Post Police camp, 8 kilometers west of Mannar, had been compelling people in the area in need of building materials to buy concertina from him. The OIC had removed concertina from the fences and rolls forming the outer defences of his detachment and sold it to locals.

Civilians in the Fifth Mile Post area have to apply for permission from the OIC of the detachment there to purchase building materials from the Mannar town and to bring them back to the village. The goods to be purchased have to be specified in the application.

Police investigators in Mannar told TamilNet that the OIC and his accomplices were in the habit of coercing people applying for such permission to buy concertina from them, particularly if the applicant had barbed wire on his shopping list. Concertina is more than a good substitute for barbed wire.

Mannar Police headquarters sources said that the OIC and the two constables had been engaged in the lucrative trade for almost two months.

Two civilians were also arrested in connection with the concertina sales. They produced before the Mannar district judge A.H.M Ajmeer today who remanded the two for 14 days.