CCD Sergeant dies, SI injured in Weligama shooting

Police Spokesman SSP Nihal Thalduwa states that a Police Sergeant of the Colombo Crime Division (CCD) died and a Sub-Inspector was injured due to a shooting incident while they were attending a raid in Weligama yesterday.

Weligama Police has informed Police headquarters that shots were fired by an unknown group of people who came in a van towards the tourist hotel near the roundabout on New Galle Road in Weligama.

It said that no one was injured in the shooting. At that time,officers who were on mobile duty of the Weligama Police Station came to the scene and fired at the van and chased the van and the van fled towards Galle, the Police information revealed.

Police information stated that officers were in a cab which had a board mentioning Police and one or two members of the Army were also there.

Police information stated that the Police cab chased the van which was speeding despite the orders and finally shots were fired according to an order given by the Sergeant who was in command of the vehicle at that time.

The Weligama Police say that the two officers of the Colombo Crime Division who were shot were in that van. As the van had not stopped, nearby Police stations and even the highway checkpoint were informed about this van through radio messages.

Accordingly, Police information revealed that the concerned van was stopped by the officials on duty at the highway entrance when it came to enter from Imaduwa Interchange.

Thalduwa mentioned that the Colombo Crime Division is engaged in some investigation regarding Harak Kata’s attempt to escape from the CID and that this incident happened while going to arrest a suspect related to that investigation.

He said that 30 people have been identified based on the information revealed in the investigations including telephone network analysis Thalduwa also mentioned that 11 of them, including four women, were arrested by the Colombo Crime Division during an operation recently.

Thalduwa said that the suspects were arrested by two teams and that the arrested suspects were placed in the custody of the Colombo Crimes Division and one team left for Matara in search of other suspects.

He also said that when the officers of the Colombo Crime Division saw a suspect staying near a hotel at a certain place in Weligama, Matara, and when they got down shots were fired from the side of the hotel. Thalduwa also mentioned that during the retaliatory fire another hotel nearby was shot.He said officers were hit by the shots fired from side of the hotel.

He further said that while the injured officers were being taken to a hospital in the van, the Weligama Police officers who were on a patrol of the area fired at the van.

He mentioned that the two officers were taken to the Karapitiya Hospital in an ambulance that had been prepared near the highway entrance and one of the officers died at the hospital. A 46-year-old Sergeant named Upul Chaminda Kumara has died.

During the Weligama Police’s investigation into this shooting, the SSP said that even ammunition casings was found near the hotel where the shooting was said to have taken place.

The hotel close to the one where shots came from has been searched by the Police on several occasions. Thalduwa said that arrests of people with drugs have also taken place in connection with the hotel in the past.

He said that investigations will be conducted by the Weligama Headquarters Police OIC under the instructions of the Matara Senior Superintendent.

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