The Mannar Magistrate’s Court has granted permission to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) to detain and interrogate the main suspect for a period of 90 days in connection with last year’s shooting incident in front of the Mannar Magistrate’s Court.

The investigation was handed over to the CID following suspicions that the suspect may have been involved in a previous shooting incident in the Adampan area, Ada Derana reporter said.

Accordingly, the suspect was initially detained for 72 hours at the CID Headquarters in Colombo under the provisions of the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA).

As the initial detention period was due to expire yesterday (02) at 1:00 p.m., the suspect was produced before the Mannar Magistrate’s Court under tight security.

The CID subsequently requested court approval to detain the suspect for a further 90 days in order to continue investigations.

Under Section 9 of the PTA, authorization from the Ministry of Defence is required to detain a suspect for a 90-day period. As such approval had not been granted by 1:00 p.m., the Magistrate initially ordered the suspect to be remanded until January 12.

However, the required approval was later granted by the President in his capacity as Minister of Defence. 

Accordingly, the CID recalled the case by way of a motion, after which the Magistrate granted permission to detain the suspect for 90 days for further interrogation.