Police recoup 129 Kandakadu rehab centre detainees

The Welikanda Police together with Special Task Force (STF) and Army personnel have managed to arrest 129 out of the 138 inmates by dawn today (12) who had escaped from the Welikanda Kandakadu Drug Treatment and Rehabilitation Centre on Monday (11) evening.

The Commissioner General of Rehabilitation, Major General Darshana Hettiarachchi said that the Welikanda Police, Special Task Force (STF) and Army personnel who were deployed in a joint search operation since last evening are continuing the search of nine more escapees.

After getting information that the inmates who fled from the Kandakadu facility were hiding in the Somawathiya Forest Reserve, a special search operation was launched covering that area to prevent the escapees from moving out further away and to capture them.

The Commissioner General of Rehabilitation said that there was a clash between two rival groups at the Kandakadu Rehabilitation Centre on Monday evening. He said that the inmates who are detained at the Welikanda Facility have been addicted to drugs for a long time and have been sent to the Rehab Centre for rehabilitation through Court orders and during the clash which the Army officers were trying to settle, some inmates had escaped from the rehabilitation centre. He said that the first clash occurred around 5pm where a group of 50 inmates had escaped and later, while the Army personnel were trying to control the escalation of the conflict, another group of inmates had escaped. According to Hettiarachchi, there were 484 inmates in total at the rehabilitation centre at the time the incident took place and the Welikanda Police, STF and Army troops are continuing conducting search operations to arrest them.

Hettiarachchi added that the inmates have divided themselves into several cliques based on their hometowns such as Negombo, Colombo and Galle, pointing out that each group has made some attempts to establish their control over the rest inside the rehabilitation centre.

Meanwhile, 107 detainees were remanded while 22 will be produced in court today.

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