20.
| (1) Where a Magistrate is satisfied by information on oath that there is reason to suspect that any offence under this Act is being or has been committed in any place or premises or that there is any document or thing, directly or indirectly connected with any such offence in any place or premises, he may issue a search warrant authorizing any person named therein to enter and search such place or premises at any time with such assistance and using such force as may be necessary, and to search any person found in such place or premises and to seize and detain any document, money, instrument or thing found therein which he has reasonable ground to suppose is directly or indirectly connected with the commission of any offence under this Act and, if he thinks fit, to arrest any person found in such place or premises whom he has reason to suspect is guilty of any such offence. |
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| (2) Where a police officer has reason to suspect that any offence under this Act is being or has been committed in any place or premises or that there is any document or thing directly or indirectly connected with any such offence in any place or premises and that a search warrant cannot be obtained under subsection (1) without giving the offender an opportunity of escaping or of concealing evidence of the offence, he may, after recording the grounds of his suspicion, exercise all or any of the powers which could have been conferred upon him by a search warrant under subsection (1). |
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Sri Lanka Consolidated Acts