Author name: Tharindu Withanage

In the morning of 12.12.2024, a dead body of the 48-year-old man who resided in the Puwakpitiya area of Habarana was found near a hotel in Laksirigama of the Habarana Police area. Initially it was suspected that death was caused by a road accident, but by the preliminary investigation it was identified as a murder by slitting the throat. Accordingly, the officers of SOCO Habarana, fingerprint officers, and dogs from the Kennel Division were deployed to carry out thorough investigations to identify the criminal. Even though the identity of the suspect was revealed by the investigation, he had already fled the area. Therefore, the officers in police station Habarana launched a search operation to track down the suspect and were able to apprehend the suspect in the evening of 23.12.2024 while hiding in the Madurankuliya police area. The police found the purse wallet and the switch key of the motorcycle, which belonged to the deceased, in possession of the suspect. Further investigations are being carried out by the police station in Habarana regarding the suspect.  

Two more suspects were arrested in the Meegoda area during the investigations carried out by the police officers in the Western Province South Crime Division on 23.12.2024 over the shooting and killing of a man traveling in a car with his wife and child on the night of 14.12.2024, passing Nagahawatte in Meegoda. The suspects are of the ages of 26 and 33 and are residents of the Meegoda area. Based on information provided by one of the suspects, the investigating officers were able to recover a 9 mm pistol and 10 live ammunitions hidden on the bank of a ravine along the Meegoda Kurunduwatta Road. Accordingly, the police officers in the Western Province South Crime Division have arrested the shooter and 06 other suspects who aided and abetted the shooting and carried out further investigations on any other crimes they committed or are about to commit.      

Another suspect who aided and abetted in the shooting incident causing serious injuries to a woman near Maligakanda Magistrate’s Court on 14.12.2024 was arrested by the Colombo Crime Division on 24.12.2024 at Jampettah Street, in the Coastal Police Area. A married couple in Wellampitiya area who kept the firearm in their possession and a person who came to get the firearm from the couple were previously arrested on 20.12.2024 and 22.12.2024, respectively. Accordingly, further investigation has been conducted and this suspect, who has been arrested, was identified as the last person who smuggled the bag with the firearm. The three-wheeler he used to smuggle the bag with the firearm and the mobile phone he used for this purpose have also been taken into police custody. The suspect is a 37-year-old individual in Jampettah Street area. The Organized Crime and Intelligence Unit of the Colombo Crime Division took necessary measures to arrest the Shooter, motorcyclist in connection with this incident, within a period of one week. Further investigation in connection with this incident is being conducted.    

Two individuals, who demanded a ransom of one million rupees from a woman in Kelaniya Police Area, after issuing death threats over the phone, have been arrested by the officers of Western Province North Crime Division, on 22 – 12 – 2014 in Dalugama and Pattiya Junction of Kiribathgoda Police Area. It has been uncovered through the initial investigation that these individuals issued death threat to the woman based on the instructions of a drug trafficker in abroad. Police has seized a mobile phone, which may have been used to make such death threats, for further investigation. Those two suspects, who are at the age of 35 and 53, are residents of Kelaniya.

A team of officers in the Special Task Force camp Buttala conducted a raid in Yala National Park of the Gonagan Ara Police Area. During the raid, the officers were able to round up 06 cannabis cultivations of nearly 13 acres and arrest four suspects. The said suspects were produced at the police station, Gonagan Ara, in the evening of 23.12.2024, for further investigations. The suspects are in the ages of 30, 37, 42, and 43 and are the residents of the Urubokka, Middeniya, Ambilipitiya, and Katuwana areas, respectively.  

On 19.12.2024, officers of the Western Province South Crime Division apprehended the shooter, who shot and killed a 35-year-old man in a forest area by Nagahawatta Road while traveling to his residence in Meegoda, Ovitigala, with his wife and child in a car after attending a party at his elder brother’s house on the night of 14.12.2024. Furthermore, a suspect who aided and abetted the crime was also taken into custody along with the T56 firearm and live ammunition used for the homicide. Three more suspects who abetted the crime were arrested on the afternoon of 22.12.2024 from the Meegoda and Homagama Police Areas. The three suspects, who are 22, 26 and 38 years old, are residents of Padukka and Meegoda areas. One of them is a person who came with the shooter to commit this crime, while the other two individuals have been arrested on the charges of aiding and abetting and conspiring to commit the crime.  The Western Province South Crime Division and the Meegoda Police Station are jointly conducting further investigations to find all the suspects in connection with this crime.

“Report information through the emergency hotlines 119 and 1997 in relation to vehicles, including public transport buses, that are driven recklessly and violate traffic rules.” As per the instructions given by the Acting Inspector General of Police, an island-wide search operation on vehicles is to be carried out on 23.12.2024 until the end of the festive period with the aim of breaking the continuity of road accidents which were largely reported during recent days. Accordingly, inspections will be conducted mainly on public passenger transport busses to check whether the drivers are under the influence of alcohol or drugs and busses will also be scrutinized for reckless driving, speeding, traffic violations, and mechanical defects, including unsafe tires. Legal action will also be taken against such drivers. Simultaneously, inspections will be carried out on other vehicles as well and for that, officers will be deployed island-wide, around the clock.  The primary aim of this special search operation, which has been implemented under the guidance of the Acting Inspector General of Police, is to encourage the public to use public transportation during this festive period while safeguarding drivers, passengers, and pedestrians. The public can report instances of reckless driving and about the drivers who violate traffic rules to the emergency hotlines 119 and 1997 and also to the mobile numbers of the officer in charge of the Police Division to which the respective area belongs or to the mobile numbers of the officers in charge of other traffic divisions mentioned below. Further, videos or photographic evidence of traffic violations can also be submitted via WhatsApp to the designated mobile numbers mentioned above, and legal action will be taken based on such information received.