Active duty servicemen moonlighting as underworld hit men

By Hemantha Randunu

Police investigations have found that a large number of active duty security forces personnel are moonlighting as hit men for underworld gangs and a significant number of recent hit jobs have been carried out by them.

Some of them leave their camps during duty hours and use their service weapons to assassinate individuals, a senior policeman said.

He said that this is a serious development and there will be chaos if the government does not take steps immediately.

Some of these miscreants are addicted to drugs, while others are under severe financial stress.

A senior police officer said that they have apprehended several such service personnel who were contracted to kill.

Recently, police arrested two active duty security forces personnel who had come to kill a fish trader in Ambalangoda. They were arrested with their duty weapons.

He said that investigators face serious problems when arresting these servicemen because their alibi is that they were on duty at the time of the crime. Unless the police are able to arrest them red handed, tracking them down and disproving their alibi is next to impossible, he said.

Police have been unable to arrest some hit men who had carried out a series of contract killings in the south. The police suspect that these were carried out by active duty security forces personnel who had committed the crimes during duty hours.