Officer in Charge of Avant-Garde further remanded

COLOMBO (News 1st) - The Officer in Charge and the Operations Manager of the Avant-Garde Armoury who are in custody after being arrested by the Criminal Investigations Department were ordered to be further remanded until the 12th of July. The order was issued today by the Chief Magistrate of Galle, A. Nishantha Peiris. The suspects include Colonel Don Thomas Albert Wijethunga Thilakaratne, the Officer in Charge of the Armory and Major Millaniyage Sumudu Nilupul Costa, the Operations Manager. The magistrate informed that these suspects cannot be granted bail from the Magistrate court due to the charges filed against them adding that bail should be obtained from the High Courts. It was when the Sri Lankan Navy seized the Avant-Garde vessel while it was transporting a stock of firearms and ammunition illegally on the 13th of October 2015 when the situation had first come into limelight. The vessel has since been handed over to the CID for further investigations. During the process of such investigations, 549 T-56 firearms, 264 84S type firearms, 246,074 bullets and two LNG type firearms were found. Since then, many suspects have been called to the Presidential Commission of Inquiry in line with the incident and the probe still continues.