Update:
Headless body in suitcase: SI found dead
Camelia Nathaniel
The Police Sub-Inspector who had brought the decapitated body of a woman in a luggage case to Dam Street, Colombo, has been found dead.
Police suspect that he had taken his own life by hanging himself, Police Spokesman DIG Ajith Rohana said.
The Sub Inspector has been found dead hanging near his house in Badalkumbura.
The suspect SI had worked in the security detail of MP Harin Fernando and MP Hesha Withanage. DIG Ajith Rohana told the Daily News that the suspect SI had met the 30-year-old victim while he was attached to MP Withanage’s security.
A letter had been found, believed to have been left by the suspect SI who had said that he had met the victim and had an affair with her. As he was unable to get away from the relationship he had committed the crime.
He was married and a father of three children who are around 21, 17 and eight years of age.
The headless corpse has been identified as that of a 30-year-old woman from Theppanawa in the Kuruvita Police area. The suspect SI had been attached to the Buttala Police, but at the time of the incident had been on leave.
The Police spokesman said that special Police teams had gone to the area of the SI’s residence near the 5th Mile Post area in Badalkumbura and the suspect had left the house by then and fled to the forest area in the vicinity. Thereafter, Police teams were deployed to search for the suspect and arrest him. However, yesterday morning one of the Police teams had discovered the body of the SI hanging from a tree and a bottle of poison was also found near the body of the SI’s body. DIG Ajith Rohana said, “a letter had been traced by the Badalkumbura Police in respect of the death of Sub Inspector who had committed suicide in the Badalkumbura area. He has been identified as the suspect of the brutal murder in respect of a headless body found in the Dam Street area in a suitcase on March 1. The Magisterial inquest of the suspected SI was held yesterday by the Monaragala Magistrate’s Court and thereafter an autopsy would be conducted on the body at the Sirigala Hospital by the JMO of the Sirigala Hospital.”
Investigations revealed that the Policeman and the woman had moved into a guest house in Hanwella on February 28. On March 1, the suspect had been seen leaving the guest house with a travelling bag in which the headless corpse of the woman was apparently stuffed.
DIG Ajith Rohana said that investigations revealed the murder was committed in the guest house.
The corpse was found inside a travelling bag abandoned at Dam Street in Colombo on Tuesday. The suspect had travelled to Colombo on a bus and the driver and the conductor of the bus were also questioned and they had confirmed that the suspect had travelled in that bus. Further investigations are underway.
