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Soil supply rivalry with Angoda Lokka trigger for double murder
View(s):Police are on the lookout for the two gunmen who shot dead a businessman and his driver in Hanwella this week on a reported contract killing over a business rivalry.
Vijith Premalal
M. Ravindu
A senior police officer said three suspects already in custody had claimed that the killing was a contract job given by underworld figure Angoda Lokka, now reportedly hiding in India.
The officer said the suspects in custody had claimed they had no role in the killings and they only received instructions to threaten the businessman who had won contracts to supply soil to land filling sites, to which Angoda Lokka had previously been contracted to supply.
The businessman identified as 43-year-old Vijith Premalal and his 32-year-old driver M.Ravindu were shot dead after the two gunmen forced the businessman’s wife at gunpoint to urge her husband to come home.
The Sunday Times learns that on the day he was killed, the businessman had received four threatening calls. The callers had told him that he would be killed if he did not stop his business of supplying soil to the sites.
However, the businessman had ignored the warnings and continued with his routine work.
The gunmen, one of them armed with a pistol and the other with a T-56 assault rifle, had gone to Mr Premalal’s residence and when they found he was not there, they reportedly called Angoda Lokka and sought instructions.
Police quoting family members said that acting on instructions received, one of the gunman using a social media video call app had shown two male relatives present in the house and asked Angoda Lokka whether Premalal was one of them. After being told they were not, the killers held the phone against the wedding picture of Mr Premalal and his wife and received confirmation that he was the wanted person.
It was thereafter they instructed Mr. Premalal’s wife at gun point to call her husband and tell him he should come home immediately as their child had fallen sick. It was well past dusk. As the businessman arrived in his motorcycle with his driver in pillion, the gunman carrying the T-56 rifle came out of the house and shot them.
Police said one of the suspects in custody had confessed that shortly after the shooting, Angoda Lokka had called him to say that the rival businessman had been killed and they no long had any rival to carry on their business.By tracing the call history in the businessman’s phone, the police struck an early breakthrough. One of the calls was from a land phone and this enabled the police to arrest a scaffolding supplier in Angoda.
According to Police, the suspect was in cahoots with Angoda Lokka in carrying out illegal businesses such as land filling and narcotics drugs.
Police investigations revealed that the businessman had succeeded in outbidding Angoda Lokka and won several contracts. This had led to the grudge.
Angoda Lokka is wanted for a series of killings, including the Kalutara prison bus attack.
The three suspects taken into custody have been remanded.