9 February 2020 12:50 pm
Twenty-one persons including an Army Colonel and two other soldiers were arrested in a joint raid by the STF and the Army for searching gold buried by the LTTE this morning at Kattaikadu in Dharmapuram in Kilinochchi.
The suspects had been excavating using scanners when the arrest was made.
The Army Colonel and the two soldiers have taken part in the excavations, providing security to a group of people who were searching for gold.
The Colonel and two Army personnel were dressed in Army uniforms when the raid was conducted.
The raid was carried out following a tip off by the STF. The STF also seized an official vehicle of the Colonel, a luxury jeep, a cab and a van.
The arrested suspects were identified as residents of Anuradhapura, Kilinochchi and Paranthan.
They were handed over to the Dharmapuram Police to be produced in the Kilinochchi Magistrate's Court.(Darshana Sanjeewa Balasuriya and Sithum Chathuranga)