Controversy surrounds the Police Headquarters decision to remove Chief Inspector W. K. Lionel, the Officer-in-Charge of Piliyandala police, whose prompt action caused the arrest of the LTTE cadre who blew up an SLTB bus as it left Piliyandala main bus stand for Kahapola on the evening of April 25.

The blast claimed the lives of 26 civilians including a Buddhist monk and wounded over 70.

Within 24 hours of the blast the officer has received orders to report to Field Force Headquarters, Bambalapitiya. In fact, by the time, the officer had received the transfer orders, two persons wanted in connection with the blast had been arrested.

Well informed sources said a Sub Inspector attached to Police Garage at Narahenpita had informed the Chief Inspector of the sighting of two persons who had acted suspiciously as they reached their boarding at Deltara. The Sub Inspector had simply passed on the information, he had received from a woman known to him, to the Chief Inspector. Despite having to tackle the crisis situation in the area, the Chief

Inspector had dispatched a team to raid the alleged safe house.

The raiding party had kept the alleged safe house under surveillance for several hours before mounting the raid which netted two persons. Police also recovered the remote controller used by the chief suspect to trigger the explosion. Under interrogation the suspects - a 24-year-old LTTE cadre Wasanthan (chief suspect) and his Sinhala accomplice, 28-year-old Ranasinghe Arachige Buddhika had revealed the circumstances in which they had blasted the bus. They had decided to blast Kahapola bound bus after their original target, the bus bound for Suwarapola, was found to be half empty, the sources said.

Subsequently the investigators had established the chief suspect’s involvement in at least six major attacks in the city and its suburbs. Police also arrested another Tamil who had introduced Wasanthan to the Sinhala accomplice.

Had the Piliyandala OIC ignored the Sub Inspector’s warning the terrorists would have escaped, the sources said. The sources didn’t rule out the possibility of Police Headquarters not being aware of the full extent of the breakthrough at the time the top brass had decided to punish the OIC.