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Double murder could break gang’s cruel grip on area
The pall of fear hanging for years over the residents of Meetiyagoda and surrounding areas in the south by a vicious gang of bootleggers could at
Irreplacable loss: Children of Malliyawadu Sunil Shantha and Mahadura Priyanganie
last be lifting.
The climax of this reign of terror was observed last Sunday when a well-known businessman and his wife, Malliyawadu Sunil Shantha and Mahadura Priyanganie – parents of three children – were murdered in a hut they had been using to distill cinnamon oil.
Behind this double murder lies a grotesque tale.
The gang is allegedly headed by Mahadura Nalin Wasantha, and comprises certain members of his close family.
Sheltered by a prominent politician of the south and a local politician from Ambalangoda, these thugs have attacked and severely maimed about 10 people including two young undergraduates in an area covering Meetiyagoda Domanwila, Kirindiela, Aluthwala, Kuligoda, Nindana, Weragoda and Metiwala.
Two youths who had contested a local election were beaten and made to kneel in public.
Villager blamed the Meetiyagoda police station for its failure in not acting on a complaint lodged . Pix by Janath de Silva
The gang, which brewed, sold and transported liquor illegally, was also in the habit of visiting functions in nearby villages, sporting firearms and other weapons.
Hardly any of these crimes came to light because the group threatened victims with death if they dared to complain.
One of the first complaints related to the double murder was lodged by Shantha and his wife.
On 22 February their son, Pavindu Madhushantha, and two of his friends were assaulted by the gang and robbed of the gold chains they had been wearing. It was in lodging a complaint of the wrong done to their son and his friends that the couple’s fate was decided; they were murdered exactly a week after going to the police.
It is telling of the terrible influence exercised by this gang that even after the murder its membersdid their best to sabotage early arrangements for the funeral, tearing down all posters and disrupting attempts to set up banners or thoranas.
Latest Meetiyagoda Victims : well-known businessman and his wife
The villager blamed the Meetiyagoda police station for its failure in not acting on the complaint lodged on February 22.
The Elpitiya Senior Superintendent‘s office in a statement said that consequent to the incident the OIC of the crime division in Meetiyagoda, Sub-Inspector Prasanna Mendis, and a constable named Vijithananda had been interdicted.
The Senior Superintendent of Police in Elpitiya, Athula Weerasinghe, said four police teams had been deployed to arrest suspects. No arrests have, however, yet been made.
The villagers, for a long time weighed down by the terror exercised by the gang, are now laying bare their grievances.
They have revealed how the local politician who had been harbouring the gang had the police at his beck and call.
The funeral of Malliyawadu Sunil Shantha and Mahadura Priyanganie was held on Thursday under heavy police guard, and after the early preparation were destroyed by the gang, decorations on the funeral route were done only during the daytime in the presence of the police.