TID providing detainee information

The police today refuted claims made by the TNA that it had received complaints that TID officers had failed to provide vital information about a number of detainees in their custody as promised.

TNA MP Sivashakthi Anandan said that he received a large number of complaints from the families and close relatives of detainees who said that TID officers at the TID center in Vavuniya failed to provide information on the detainees.

Police Spokesman SP Prishantha Jayakody said that some families requested for information on police, CID or army detainees which he said they were not authorized to give. “Only details with regard to those who have been arrested and released by the TID can be made available to their families and loved ones. Information on other detainees will not be available,” SP Jayakody said.

“Only relevant information that the detainees have requested to be made available to their families and loved ones is obtainable. Therefore whatever information that is available has been published at the request of the detainees themselves,” he said.

It was recently announced that information centers in the three TID offices in Boosa, Vavuniya and Colombo have published the names, whereabouts and other relevant information on TID detainees and missing persons. These services are available 24 hours. (Olindhi Jayasundere)