Several dozen extortionists who had terrorised wealthy businessmen, particularly those engaged in illegal money transferring operations, are in police custody. Among the arrested are security forces personnel, police and underworld activists. Some of them are believed to be connected to the LTTE.

Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa told The Island that following a painstaking investigation, the police had managed to arrest the suspects. Responding to queries, he said that some of the suspects had carried out their sordid operations on the pretext of being members of his bodyguard. "A section of the media vilified me. The opposition, too, attacked me and the government repeatedly," he said, adding that the number of arrested could be as high as 50. He asserted that this could be perhaps the largest ever extortion operation carried out in city and its suburbs. According to him, these gangs had successfully operated for well over a year until police gradually turned the tables on them.

The war veteran said that he had over a dozen police teams to investigate complaints after the government was accused of targeting Tamil businessmen. But investigations had revealed that gangs of security forces personnel including some officers had taken advantage of the then dicey security situation to extort money. He said that civilian gangs, too, had pretended to be his bodyguards. Among the security forces officers now in custody in this regard was a Major indicted for the assassination of Deputy Army Chief of Staff Major General Parami Kulathunga.

The Defence Secretary said that law enforcement authorities were trying to locate some of the businessmen targeted by the gangs. They had been particularly harsh on businessmen who had accepted money in Colombo from dubious persons for transfer to overseas destinations, he said. Among the persons who had utilized this service called ‘undil’ could be LTTE operatives and persons engaged in shady deals, he said.

He said that some political parties and a section of the press had accused the government of targeting the media. Nothing could be as ridiculous as this, he said while expressing confidence that the ongoing police investigations would establish the truth. He severely criticized, what he called, a politically motivated attempt to tarnish the image of the government at a time security forces spearheaded by the army were on the verge of finishing off the LTTE.