COLOMBO — Sri Lanka's deputy defence minister denied Monday that fugitive underworld figure Kanjipani Imran, wanted in connection with international drug trafficking, had been arrested in Italy, saying police were still trying to catch him.
Several local outlets reported earlier in the day that Imran, whose full name is Mohamed Nazeem Mohamed Imran, had been taken into custody there.
Deputy Defence Minister Aruna Jayasekara said the reports were false and appeared to stem from confusion over remarks he had made a day earlier.
"There is no truth to reports being published quoting me as saying that Kanjipani Imran has been arrested," Jayasekara said Monday evening. "However, measures are being taken to arrest the individual concerned."
Imran has been on the run since December 2022, when a Colombo magistrate granted him bail in a string of criminal cases. He had been arrested once before, in April 2019, after Dubai authorities deported him to Sri Lanka. Investigators said he had entered Dubai in March 2015 on a forged passport and obtained a residence visa there in January 2016. Police went on to investigate him in 27 separate incidents, including cases of murder and attempted murder, while the Criminal Investigation Department opened a separate inquiry into the forged passport.
After his release on bail, police say, Imran fled Sri Lanka by boat to India, then moved through Europe on a succession of different passports before going into hiding.
Police have stepped up the search for him in recent months, appealing to the public and to Sri Lankans living overseas for information and seeking cooperation from foreign law enforcement agencies.
The false reports of his capture surfaced as Sri Lankan authorities pursue a broader crackdown on organized crime networks and large-scale narcotics trafficking.
