Two organised crime suspects held in Dubai are due to be flown back to Sri Lanka on Monday night, police said, in the latest of a series of repatriations of wanted men detained abroad.
NewsFirst reported that Lalith Kannangara, known as “Bus Lalith”, and a second suspect known as “Wanathe Chathu” are scheduled to arrive on the night of 24 August.
A team led by Senior Superintendent of Police Kamal Ariyawansa, Director of the Central Crime Investigation Bureau, has already travelled to Dubai to take custody of the pair. He is accompanied by officers from the State Intelligence Service and the Criminal Investigation Department, who went on the instructions of the Inspector General of Police.
The Dubai case
Bus Lalith was arrested at an apartment complex in Dubai after a close associate detained in Sri Lanka was questioned and provided information, according to NewsFirst. The same team of SSP Ariyawansa, SIS and CID officers carried out that operation.
Efforts to return him began soon afterwards, but he contested the move before a Dubai court. That court recently ruled against him and ordered his deportation.
Police say Bus Lalith is wanted over several murders, extortion cases and robberies in Sri Lanka. Wanathe Chathu is described as a close associate of the organised crime figure Kanjipani Imran.
NewsFirst’s report on Saturday dates the Dubai arrest to November 2025. The outlet’s own contemporaneous report of the arrest, headlined “‘Bus Lalith’ Falls: Sri Lankan Criminal Nabbed in Dubai”, was published on 14 October 2025 — so the month given in the latest filing does not match NewsFirst’s earlier reporting. LankaNewz has not been able to establish which is correct.
Two more in custody
NewsFirst said two further organised crime suspects, known as “Alto Dharme” and “Konda Ranji”, remain in custody in Dubai. It did not say whether deportation proceedings are under way in their cases.
The repatriations follow a run of similar operations. Three suspects held in Malaysia — including an alleged close associate of Kanjipani Imran — were flown back to Colombo on 10 August, and the underworld figure “Summitpura Chathu” was returned from Oman on 18 August.
No other verified Sri Lankan newsroom had published its own report on the planned deportations at the time of writing on Saturday afternoon.
