Minuwangoda triple murder shooter arrested in Padaviya
A team of officers of the Padaviya Police arrested the shooter, who had been hiding in a house in Padaviya for over a month after breaking into a house in Gamangedera, Minuwangoda and shooting a father and two sons and fleeing. The 39-year-old shooter is an Air Force deserter named Jayagodage Sanjeewa Dona Sanjeewa Lakmal.This suspect who is addicted to drugs had been hiding in a house at Padaviya 18th Mile Post from October 29 and not appearing before any villager while leading a secret life in hiding.
A top police official said that a villager who got suspicious about this individual’s behaviour had informed the Padaviya police. Accordingly, a team of officers from the Padaviya Police Crimes Investigation Division had visited this house to find out the suspect individual’s identity. He had seen the police arriving and had run away. The police had pursued him and caught him and questioned him. Then they had been able to identify his as the shooter involved in the triple murder at Minuwangoda.
The shooter had been hiding in a house belonging to the mother of a friend.The friend is said to be a resident of Kandana. The police said this friend, Upali Ratnasiri had phoned his mother and told her that a certain friend was coming to the house and to allow him to live there. During investigations it was revealed that this woman who lived alone in the house had allowed this individual to live with her based on her son’s request. Police said that this shooter is a resident of Mahindarama Road, in Kotte. Investigations have revealed that the shooter had got involved in the triple murder on a contract given to him by an underworld criminal named Mahesh who lives in Dubai.
The criminal Mahesh had been given the contract to carry out this triple murder by a dried-fish merchant in Minuwangoda. This triple murder took place on October 6 as a result of a clash between two families based conflict that arose as a result of flying kites.
Although the individual who gave the contract for the murder as well as the six suspects who were involved in it had been taken into custody by the police on several occasions it had not been possible to arrest the main suspect in the murder, the shooter, up to now.
This suspect who had been caught by the Padaviya police by chance was due to be handed over to the Minuwangoda police.