News
Double mistakes led to murder
A case of mistaken identity and a house owner’s failure to check the credentials of his tenant led to his murder by underworld gang members who also shot his wife.
Christy Fernando Warnakulasuriya, 51, who was suffering from a nervous disorder, and his wife, Karunawathi Perera, were fast asleep at their home in Batapotha, Thalangama last Sunday.
Fatal shots: The house owner's son points to the scene of the crime. Pix by Amila Gamage
A son who usually slept in the adjoining room was away on a trip to Sri Pada.
The couple were woken by the sound of someone breaking in through the front door. Seconds later, a masked man ran into their room and opened fire.
“He was firing at my husband, who was still lying in bed. I screamed and he fired two shots at me,” Ms. Perera told The Sunday Times.
“I saw the man running out and then heard the sound of a bike being ridden away,” she said.
Ms Perera managed to half-carry her injured husband to the front of the house and called out for help.
“He told me he was seriously wounded and might not survive,” she said.
Neighbours rushed them to hospital but Mr. Warnakulasuriya succumbed to his injuries. Doctors treated Ms. Perera, who had been shot in the leg.
Family members and neighbours were shocked by the incident as there seemed no reason why the couple had attracted such violence.
Eventually, Thalangama police solved the mystery.
“As we recorded statements during our investigations we found that a room in this house had been rented out to a couple who had claimed to be hotel employees,” police said. The couple had rented the room for Rs. 6,500 a month for the past three months.
The couple vanished from the house the day after the attack.
A man told police that on the day of the attack he had heard a motorcycle approaching the house and afterwards heard someone walking around the house before the front door was broken open. He had heard shots being fired and then the sound of the bike speeding away.
Subsequent investigations revealed that the man who had rented the room from Mr. Warnakulasuriya had recently been involved in a brawl in which he had attacked members of a rival gang.
Karunawathi Perera: Lucky to survive
“We believe that members of that gang might have followed him and found out where he was residing but they had not known that he was living in a room that had entry through a side door,” police said.
Mr. Warnakulasuriya’s son, 25-year-old Sameera Madhushan, said his parents had no enemies and there was no reason for any person to shoot them. “I believe it was a mistaken identity,” he said.
He said the tenants had first approached him to rent the room. “We did not take a deposit or even look at their identity cards. We did no checks on them,” he said.
Police discovered the tenant belonged to a gang involved with the criminal, “Samayan”, who was shot dead in a prison bus in Kalutara in February last year.
The Officer-in-Charge of the Thalangama Police, Chief Inspector Arjuna Mahinkanda, said people should always check the identity and background of the prospective tenants.
Police, Chief Inspector Arjuna Mahinkanda
The tenants vanished from the house the day after the attack
