An Army captain and four soldiers were arrested, after weeks of tracking them, in connection with the alleged abduction and killing of a State bank officer.
A State bank assistant manager identified as Gunasinha Prematillake was strangled to death on April 1 this year and his body found in the Labugama reserve in the Kosgama police area.
After the Kosgama police failed to make a breakthrough in the investigations a complaint was lodged by the victim’s brother with the Colombo Crime Division (CCD) where further investigations into the killing began.
The Army captain is said to have initially built up a friendship with Mr. Prematillake and subsequently introduced him to his subordinates as well, but due to a dispute between the captain and the bank officer they had eventually decided to kill him.
CCD Director Police Superintendent Vass Gunawardena told the Sunday Times that the captain and the bank officer had been boarded at a house in Kollupitiya and after the dispute arose between them the captain had directed a corporal to initiate a plan to kill the bank officer.
The uniformed men had then hired a van telling the driver that they had to visit the Avissawella area for a ‘military-related operation’.
“They lured the bank officer into the van on the pretext of trying to show him a new house which the captain wanted to purchase. On the way they dropped the driver in the Avissawella town claiming they were heading for an ‘operation.’ Thereafter the corporal had used a shoelace to strangle the victim,” he said.
They had tied his hands and dumped the body on the roadside, he said.
Police who gathered information about the associates of the bank officer had tracked down the suspects and eventually arrested one of them. Subsequently all suspects were taken in.
The CCD officers were able to recover a gold chain which the soldiers had pawned, a mobile phone and the gloves allegedly used by the killer.
Investigations are being continued under the direction of ASP Nuwan Wedasinha assisted by Inspector Priyankara and Sub-inspector Wijesinha. |
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