By Norman Palihawadane
The Army and the Mahaweli security personnel nabbed seven persons for videoing the Victoria dam and the surrounding high security area using a drone camera.
They handed over the suspects to the police for further investigations, yesterday.
The suspects are between the ages of 31 and 32 years and are residents of Beruwala, Mount Lavinia and Weligama.
Police said the group had arrived there on Saturday (22) morning in a van and asked from the Mahaweli Engineering Office for permission to take videos and photos with a drone camera.
After the Mahaweli Engineering Office informed the group that they could not be allowed to video the dam without permission of the Ministry of Defence, they went to a forested area adjacent to the observation point and launched the drone camera.
The Mahaweli security officers, who were alarmed by the sound of the drone camera, immediately came into action and arrested the group.
Theldeniya police said that the Mahaweli Security Division had also lodged a complaint with the police about the incident, and accordingly they took steps to arrest the seven persons.
Police also said they are taking steps to obtain a court order to examine the videos and photos recorded by the drone camera as they had been clearly instructed not to fly it.
The suspects are to be produced in Theldeniya Magistrate’s Court.
According to police the area around the Victoria Dam has been gazetted as a high security zone and some people are sending drone cameras to the area and trying to take pictures.
Police said that legal action had already been taken against people who took photos of the high security area around Victoria Dam on three occasions since January this year.