Police never harass people in the church: Weerasekara

While saying it was a childish argument to make that police was harassing people in the church, Public Security Minister Sarath Weerasekara said today that there was clear evidence that the church employee who was arrested over the recovery of the hand grenade at the All Saints Church Borella, had placed the bomb there.

He told reporters that it was found out that the arrested sachristian had placed the bomb on the altar and set it to explode and said some tapes, matchsticks and joss sticks used to detonate the bomb had been found in the room of the suspect.

The Minister said this person had admitted in the court that he had placed the bomb there and added that when such a person was arrested it was a childish argument to make that people in the church were harassed.

The Minister said it was true that a man limping had come to the church in the morning on that day and added that investigations were underway on that.

"If there is CCTV footage, they should be provided to the police. When such videos are released to the media first, such suspects can go to hiding," he said.

When asked about claims that police had not viewed CCTV footage in the morning, he said the complaint had been made at around 5.00 in the evening and that the police wanted to arrest the suspects immediately.

"Police had not asked not to view the CCTV footage in the morning or to delete them. If there are such videos, they should be provided to the police. The investigation is still in progress," he said. (Ajith Siriwardana)