Security in the Kalutara Courts has been tightened since Wednesday and body searches by the police are the order of the day while the case of a gang-land killing is being heard at the Magistrates Court. There is suspicion that arms and explosives could be smuggled in to the courts by the rival parties.
Two notorious gangs involved in the case are suspected of a number of killings in Kalutara North police division, police said.
Rumour mongers naturally had a field day spreading a story that there was a bomb in the courts and that litigants and lawyers were asked to leave the Magistrate Courts as the bomb disposal squad had been summoned to defuse it.
Senior lawyer in the Kalutara Bar Bandula Weerasinghe said "At no time was there a bomb scare in the Court house" and confirmed it is the work of the rumour mongers. A veteran lawyer with over four decades of practice was quoted as saying that it was the first time that he was subjected to a body search in the Courts premises.
(http://www.island.lk/2004/09/24/news20.html)
