Husband who hired friend to kill wife arrested

Pitigala Police on Wednesday arrested a businessman husband who had killed his 40-year-old wife by giving a contract of Rs.2 million. Police sources said that he had allegedly given the contract to kill her by knocking  her down by a vehicle to pretend that death was due to a car accident.  

 

This murder had taken place on the evening of  April 30 on the Pitigala-Mapalagama road near the Manampitiya junction, the police said.

 

The victim  is Nirosha Udayangani (40) and a resident of Diyakithul Kanda, Wattahena, Thalgaswala. Her husband, (25) who runs a food sales outlet and is a resident of Ethumale, Mapalagama, Galle has been arrested in connection with this murder.

 

The police said the woman who was killed worked at the Katunayake Free Trade Zone and her husband was managing the food sales outlet in Mapalagama.

 

During investigations it had been revealed that this woman had married the suspect about 10 months ago. It was also discovered that this woman stays at a boarding house to attend work and returns home only either once a week or once in two weeks.

 

On 30 April she had come to the Kurundugahahethepma interchange along the Katunayake Expressway and she had been travelling back home on the back of a motor bike her husband had come on to pick her up when she had been killed, the police said.

 

The husband had obtained an extra motorcycle helmet from a relative’s place and come to pick up his wife. He had picked her up at the interchange and dropped her off at the Manampitiya junction on the Pitigala-Mapalagama road saying that he would return the helmet and come back when she had been run over by a vehicle and killed.

 

The husband had told the police that when he returned his wife had died in a road accident. He had also mentioned that he had stopped a vehicle travelling on the road and taken her to the Niyagama Rural Hospital and admitted her but doctors had said that she was already dead by that time.

 

Accordingly, the Pitigala Police, traffic division had commenced an investigation into this hit and run case. Meanwhile, the police had felt suspicious regarding the behaviour of the husband. The police suspected why he had left the wife on the road and gone alone to return the helmet. As a result they had questioned the relative from whom the helmet had been borrowed. Then it had been revealed that he had returned the helmet, engaged in conversation for a while and asked for a glass of water which had consumed and only then left. The police also received informationthat he had received a telephone call just before left and the husband had asked ‘wede harida’ or is the task complete before leaving.

 

Accordingly, the husband of the deceased woman was taken into custody by the police and questioned at length. Whereupon he had told the police that he had got his wife killed based on a plan he had made.

 

He had obtained on hire a Bolero Cab vehicle from Mapalagama for this purpose about two months ago for a monthly rent of Rs.50,000. He had given this vehicle to a friend of his, resident at the Thalgaswala Fishing Village and got him to agree to kill his wife by running her over on the promise of paying him Rs. 2 million.

 

His friend had not agreed at first but when he was told he will be Rs.2 million he had acquiesced.The police said these two had travelled in the cab on several occasions looking for suitable places at which to run over the woman. Finally, they had decided on a place near the Manampitiya junction on the Pitigala-Mapalagama road.

 

“At first, I thought of drowning her in the sea. I would have taken her on a trip and then I would have pushed her into the sea. I had prepared everything properly. Ultimately, I could not do that since the boatmen died suddenly,” the suspect husband had said to the police during questioning.

 

According to the police, this husband had run a food sales outlet at Averiyawatte in Katunayake at one time and it was then that he had met his wife and become a couple.

“She, told me she was even younger than me. She intimidated me and got me to marry her. I got to know her proper age only at the time of marriage,” the husband had said when he was questioned by the police.

 

He had said further, “She threatened me once, that she will consume poison if I did not marry her. Later she put a knife to my throat and said she will kill me and then commit suicide herself.

Finally, she said she will bring someone from the underworld and kill me and then got married to me.”

He had been disgusted with his wife since she had lied about her age and threatened to kill him and had thought frequently of freeing himself from her. When he had asked for a divorce, she had threatened him, according to what he had told the police. He told the police further that, that is why he decided to kill her.

 

The suspect had also told the police that his wife had been insured for 30 million rupees and that she had four insurance accounts. During investigations it had become apparent that he wanted to show that the wife had died in a road accident and then to get the insurance money for himself.

 

With the suspect husband revealing all this information to the police, they had gone to the Thalgaswala house of his friend who had run over and killed the wife and they had found the cab used in this killing parked in front of the house but the suspect had not been there. The police said investigations are underway to arrest him.

 

Pitigala Police OIC, Inspector Anura Pushpakumara, Sub-Inspector, Wickremasinghe, Sub-Inspector Pitigala, Sergeant Abeyratne (30964) and Constable Udayakumara (77800) had been involved in the initiative of solving this crime.