Investigation teams have received a lot of information which has given rise to suspicion that the death of an employee by shooting in a medical laboratory belonging to a private hospital near
Dharmapala Vidyalaya, Kottawa, is the work of the Dubai underworld.
The investigation teams suspect that S.F. Jagath, an underworld criminal who runs a drug network in Homagama area, from Dubai was behind the shooting. A high-ranking police officer said that the reason for this may be a grudge between the murdered laboratory worker and the underworld criminal.
The victim Pelamandala Nayakage Mihiran Prabhath Pathmasiri (33) was residing in Namal Uyana, Mattegoda, has been killed. According to intelligence agencies,there is also information that this young man was closely associated with an underworld criminal named Kosgoda Tharaka, who was killed in a clash with the police when he had gone to point out some hidden firearms, while in the custody of the Criminal Investigation Department.
Intelligence sources also said that there is a criminal named Gagana who was with Kosgoda Tharaka and he has recently been released from prison on bail. According to intelligence agencies, this young man had been in contact with the criminal named Gagana too.
The murdered person worked as a health promotion officer in the particular private hospital and he had come to start his daily work at the blood testing institute located in front of Kottawa Dharmapala Vidyalaya at around 8 am yesterday, parked his motorcycle on the road and gone inside the institute to collect blood samples.
At that time, the police said that two masked men with helmets who had come from the direction of Kottawa on a motorcycle had entered the laboratory and fired several shots at him. When he
was shot in the head and side of the neck and fallen to the ground, the two shooters had got on the same motorcycle they arrive on and fled towards Mattegoda. He was seriously injured in the shooting and died while being taken to Homagama Base Hospital.
Investigations are being carried out under the direct supervision of the Nugegoda SSP.