Four suspects have been arrested over the hand grenade attack on a house on Gnanendra Road in Rathmalana, police said, four days after the two-storey property was targeted.
Officers attached to the Mount Lavinia Police Station made the arrests on Saturday (8) during operations in the Moratuwa and Rathmalana areas. The four are aged 21, 26, 28 and 30, and are residents of Moratuwa and Rathmalana.
What happened on August 5
Two hand grenades were thrown at the house in the early hours of August 5. One detonated and the other landed in the garden without exploding and was later recovered by police.
No one was hurt in the attack. The blast damaged the property, shattering the glass panes of two windows.
Police point overseas
Preliminary investigations indicate the attack was allegedly carried out on the instructions of an organised criminal currently living overseas, according to both Ada Derana and the Daily Mirror. Police also believe a dispute between rival organised crime groups may have led to the attack.
Neither report named the person police believe ordered it.
When the attack was first reported on August 5, police said preliminary investigations had identified the owner of the house as a cousin of Russell Aloysius Smith, who they believe is living abroad and who authorities allege has links to an organised criminal group. Police said at the time that Smith had previously maintained close ties with alleged crime figures known by the aliases “Anju” and “Dharme,” and had later fallen out with Anju.
Smith has not been charged in connection with the attack, and the allegations against him have not been tested in court. Police have not said publicly whether the overseas figure referred to in Sunday’s reports is the same person.
The attack was one of several incidents in the Mount Lavinia division, where police have deployed special teams after a run of shootings linked to organised crime. Officers separately detained six people in Rathmalana on August 7 with an improvised grenade, swords and suspected drug proceeds, in what police treated as a separate case.
Further investigations are being conducted by the Mount Lavinia Police.
Sources: Ada Derana, Daily Mirror.
