[1][2] On 2 January 2002, a special team of Sri Lanka Police led by Superintendent of Police (Special Operations, Kandy district), Kulasiri Udugampola, raided a safe house maintained by the Directorate of Military Intelligence (DMI) of the Sri Lanka Army at Millennium City housing scheme: No.
The police team arrested five Army soldiers, including a Captain (Captain Shahul Hameed Nilam, Commanding Officer of the LRRP) and one paramilitary member, a former cadre of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (which made up for the lack of a court order or warrant).
This incident occurred immediately after the Parliamentary election of December 2001, in which United National Front came into power, defeating the incumbent People's Alliance government.
The safe house was presented to the public as a hideout from which the army purportedly planned to assassinate high-level leaders of the United National Party, including then Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.
Army commander Lionel Balagalla was compelled to issue a public statement revealing the true nature of this unit.
President Chandrika Kumaratunga appointed a commission headed by D. Jayawickrema, a retired Judge of the Court of Appeal to inquire into and report on the raid.
A Supreme Court judgement delivered in January 2004 stated that the fundamental rights of the soldiers had been violated and ordered ASP Udugampola to pay a sum of Rs.
50,000 LKR each to five of the LRRP operatives, S. H. Nilam, P. Ananda Udalagama, H. M. Nissanka Herath, I. Edirisinghe Jayamanne and H. Mohamed Hilmy.
Immediately after the incident, through the Criminal Investigation Department and other channels, it was revealed that the safe house was none other than a top secret military establishment.
It was not until 9 January, on the orders of Defence Minister Tilak Marapana, the operatives of the LRRP who were held at the Katugastota Police Station were released.
The LTTE Intelligence chief, Shanmugalingam Sivashankar alias Pottu Amman personally traveled to Batticaloa to oversee the "elimination" of the "traitors".
The government did not take any significant measures to stop this, and requests made by the state intelligence agencies were quietly subdued on the basis that it would affect the ceasefire.
April 13, 2003 Sinnathambi Rajan alias Varadan Informant - to be enlisted to the Army shot dead by the LTTE pistol group in Colombo.
The Sunday Times defence columnist Iqbal Athas, in February 2004 revealed the names of 24 Tamil informants who had fallen victim to the LTTE's scourge.
Mike in turn liaised with a network of operatives as well as informants, including one time guerrilla cadres, in the Batticaloa and Ampara districts.
He was the Commanding Officer of the 1st Battalion, Military Intelligence Corps, serving as the second-in-command under Captain Nilam, when the incident occurred.