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Courthouse killing: Suspects had conducted “dry run” days before the shooting
View(s):- By Damith Wickramasekara and Sandun Jayawardana
The dry run had been conducted to identify details such as the layout of the complex, entry and exit points, and the level of security. Investigators have so far gathered a significant amount of information on Wednesday’s brazen murder by alleged shooter, Samindu Dilshan Piyumanga Kandanaarachchi (27), who was arrested in Palaviya in Puttalam within hours while allegedly on his way to board a boat to flee to India. The identity of the suspected shooter initially caused confusion among authorities as he had been going by several names. Public Security Minister Ananda Wijepala though, revealed in Parliament on Friday that the name Samindu Dilshan Piyumanga Kandanaarachchi was the name stated on his National Identity Card.
Aftermath of the shooting: Heavy security in the court premises. Pic by Indika Handuwala
CCTV footage and eyewitness accounts have already revealed a lot about what happened on Wednesday when Sanjeewa Kumara Samararatne alias “Ganemulla Sanjeewa” was gunned down inside the Aluthkade No. 05 Magistrate’s Court premises. He had been brought to court earlier that morning from the Boossa high security prison under heavy guard. Police say that the shooter, a former Army Commando who was disguised as a lawyer, shot Sanjeewa several times inside the court room with a revolver concealed inside a hollowed-out copy of the Code of Criminal Procedure. He had then dropped the revolver and run out from the court room amidst the ensuing chaos, shouting out that shots were being fired inside the court room. He had managed to walk out the main gate of the court complex before police officers shut the gate and blocked other entry and exit points. The woman who had given him the book with the concealed weapon, identified as Ishara Sewwandi (25), a resident of Negombo, had followed him out the gate too.
Authorities had a major breakthrough when the State Intelligence Service (SIS) received a tip-off that led them to obtain the mobile number being used by the shooter, a senior police officer told the Sunday Times. By tracking the number, they found that he was travelling towards Kalpitiya, allegedly to flee the country by boat to India, where his handlers had arranged a safe house for him.
Knowing that he would have to go past Puttalam, authorities quickly set up road blocks throughout the area to intercept him. It was at one such road block, manned by the Police Special Task Force (STF), that the van carrying the alleged shooter was stopped. Police say they found a foreign-manufactured hand grenade in the suspect’s travelling bag and that he initially claimed to be a lawyer, even producing a fake lawyer’s identity card. The officer claimed that the shooter is addicted to ‘Ice’ and appeared to be under the influence of the drug even at the time of his arrest.
Police claim that under interrogation, he confessed that he had been promised Rs. 15 million to carry out the shooting, but had only received Rs. 200, 000. He had been promised the rest of the money after he had accomplished the mission and made his way to India.
The contract on Sanjeewa had been given by an organised criminal and drug trafficker based in Dubai. Communication had been mainly been through WhatsApp. Shortly before the shooting, the shooter had received a call from Dubai while inside the court complex, where he allegedly told the person on the other end that there were a lot of armed police and STF personnel in court with Sanjeewa. The shooter had asked whether he should abort the operation. However, he had been instructed to go ahead with assurances given that a vehicle was waiting for him outside the court premises.
When the suspect left the court house after the shooting, he found that the getaway vehicle wasn’t there. He had then taken a taxi through an app and travelled to a popular clothing store in Nugegoda. Here he had purchased the white shirt and pants he was wearing at the time of his arrest. Police say he had met with the female suspect Sanjeewani, who had also made her way to the same shop to purchase clothes to replace the attire she wore to disguise herself as a lawyer in court. They had then left the store together in a trishaw but had gone their separate ways later with the shooter taking a van that had allegedly been sent for him to travel to Kalpitiya to take a boat to India.
Officers from the Colombo Crime Division (CCD) who are leading the investigation have been able to trace the movements of the two main suspects in the days leading up to the murder. They have found that the suspects had stayed at a hotel room in Negombo for three days prior to the shooting but had moved to a hotel in Kaduwela the day before the shooting. CCTV footage from Kaduwela hotel shows a man arriving in a Honda Fit vehicle and handing over a parcel to the couple the day before the shooting. It is suspected that the parcel contained the revolver used to commit the crime and the clothes that the gunman used to disguise himself as a lawyer.
CCD investigations have also found that the suspected shooter Samindu Dilshan alias “Commando Samindu,” had been involved in several other fatal shootings. The most recent was the shooting of two persons at Watarapparala Road, Mount Lavinia on January 7. The suspect, a resident of Maharagama, had joined the Sri Lanka Army in December 2019 and served as a member of the Commando Regiment, Minister Wijepala told Parliament on Friday. He had subsequently deserted but had obtained a legal discharge from the Army in May last year during a general amnesty.
Minister Wijepala further said that the suspect confessed under interrogation that he had dumped a bag containing clothes he wore during the shooting at a spot in Kochchikade. The bag was later recovered by police.
The female suspect Sewwandi however, remains at large, with police offering a reward for information on her. On Friday, the CCD arrested a police constable attached to the Negombo Police who they believe had a close relationship with the female suspect. The 26-year-old suspect is a resident of Padeniya. Police say the suspect, identified by Minister Wijepala in Parliament as Lahiru Prasanna Ethugala, had a number used by the female suspect saved on his mobile phone and had been in contact with her before and after the courthouse shooting. He was arrested on charges of aiding and abetting the crime and produced before the Colombo Chief Magistrate’s Court on Friday, where he was remanded in custody till March 7. The court also ordered that Mahesh Sampath Priyadarshana (44), the driver of the van that transported the suspected shooter, be held under detention orders and interrogated.
Police last evening said they have arrested the driver of the car who transported the shooter and provided him the murder weapon. He was identified as Janaka Udaya Kumara (43), a resident of Gampaha. They also arrested a second police constable, identified as S.A. Hasitha Roshan (37) from Pannipitiya. The constable was attached to the Athurugiriya Police and was in possession of the van with fake number plates that the shooter used to flee. Altogether, five suspects are now under arrest over the shooting.
While questions regarding a breakdown in national security have been raised in the aftermath of the Aluthkade shooting and several others that occurred this week, Minister Wijepala rejected those accusations, telling Parliament the government took the matter extremely seriously and there was no breakdown in national security. Police Spokesman Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) K.B. Manathunga meanwhile, pointed out that the alleged shooter was arrested within eight hours of the crime thanks to assistance from the SIS. He also said many establishments voluntarily gave CCTV footage of the suspects to police so that they could track their movements.
The Department of Prisons is conducting its own internal inquiry into the incident under an Assistant Superintendent of Prisons. Additionally, the Colombo Remand Prison has launched an initial inquiry. The Prisons Department’s investigators have already visited the court premises and the National Hospital where the deceased was taken after being shot, and have obtained statements from prisons officers who were present at the time of the incident. On Friday, investigators visited the Boossa Prison and obtained statements from the prisons officers there, Prisons Commissioner and Department Spokesman Gamini B. Dissanayake told the Sunday Times. A report on the incident will be submitted to the Commissioner General of Prisons once the inquiry is completed.
| Prior warning about threat to “Ganemulla Sanjeewa”Police had received information warning of an attempt on the life of “Ganemulla Sanjeewa” when he was to be produced before the Gampaha Magistrate’s Court the week before he was killed, Acting Inspector General (IGP) Priyantha Weerasooriya disclosed yesterday. “We received a tip off that there could be an attempt on his life on the day he was to make an appearance at the Gampaha Magistrate Court. I informed the relevant police officers in the area who spoke to the Magistrate and got permission for a virtual hearing that day” IGP Weerasooriya told a press conference yesterday. He claimed there was no information about a security threat to Sanjeewa when he was to be produced before the Colombo Magistrate Court this week. When questioned by journalists as to why Sanjeewa had been produced in court at all if there had been information the week before about a threat to his life, Mr Weerasooriya said investigations are underway regarding whether there was a necessity to physically produce him in the Colombo Magistrate Court this week.
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| Many unanswered questions remainMany unanswered questions remain about the shooting inside the court complex. While it is clear the gunman and the woman who handed him the weapon had disguised themselves as lawyers due to lawyers not being subjected to checks, the more disturbing aspect is that they managed to escape out the front gate afterwards, said Attorney-at-Law Senaka Perera, Executive Director of the Committee for Protecting Rights of Prisoners (CPRP).He observed that “Ganemulla Sanjeewa” would have been moved to the Boossa high security prison owing to a threat assessment, not just because of the risk of him trying to escape. Such a prisoner has to be protected throughout the process of being transported from the Boossa prison to court and at the court itself. “Clearly there was a break somewhere in this chain,” Mr Perera noted. Mr Perera added he was present in Court No.06 at the Aluthkade Magistrate’s Court that day when he heard several shots being fired inside Court No. 05. “It takes some time to get from Court No. 05 to the front gate. A lot could have been done during this time. The bare minimum would have been to immediately shut the gate and post armed guards at the entrance to prevent anyone leaving. This wasn’t done in time to prevent the suspects from getting away, despite there being dozens of armed police, prisons and STF officers inside the complex at the time.” The CPRP official also pointed to a video circulating online showing scores of police, prisons and STF officers inside the court room in the immediate aftermath of the shooting, seemingly doing nothing to rush “Ganemulla Sanjeewa” to hospital despite someone claiming he is still alive. “Some may try to justify such actions saying he was an underworld figure, but he is still innocent until proven guilty and even if found guilty, it is the courts that must pass sentence. Such incidents shatter people’s confidence in the justice system.” Mr. Perera said authorities needed to take more specific measures to prevent such incidents in the future rather than simply checking lawyers entering court. “We need to utilise more technology. For example, despite its importance, there is still no scanner at the entrance to the Aluthkade court complex. A scanner would have detected the revolver that they smuggled into the court in a book. Also, during the pandemic, measures were implemented to produce suspects for legal proceedings through Skype from prison without physically bringing them to court. This was used for all cases during the pandemic and is still being used in some cases. There have been occasions where “Ganemulla Sanjeewa” was also produced virtually for court cases from Boossa prison, so the question arises as to why he had to be brought to court physically when such technology was available,” he pointed out.
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