The Criminal Investigation Department has uncovered new information about the disappearance of a retired Sri Lanka Army soldier eight years ago, Ada Derana reports, after a suspect held under a detention order made admissions during questioning.
The CID’s Homicides and Organized Crime Investigation Division arrested the suspect on June 8 along with a foreign-manufactured firearm and a stock of live ammunition. During questioning, he allegedly said he had assaulted and killed a retired military officer named Nishshanka eight years ago, and that the killing was motivated by his close relationship with the victim’s wife.
The suspect told investigators the body was first buried on a plot of land in the area and later thrown into a nearby river. Investigators were taken to the location on Tuesday, but the remains have not been recovered.
A second alleged killing
The suspect also allegedly told the CID that he had taken a 25-year-old woman who knew about the incident to India, where she was killed and disappeared. Reports indicate he had also maintained a close relationship with that woman. Ada Derana did not say whether Indian authorities have been notified, whether the second death is being investigated as a separate case, or whether the woman has been identified.
What the earlier reporting established
Hiru News reported at the time of the June arrest that the case concerns a retired soldier who lived in Narangaspitiya, Kirindiwela, and who was abducted and went missing there on September 9, 2018. The CID opened a lengthy investigation after a complaint to the Inspector General of Police, and detained the suspect — described then as a 47-year-old man from Ranthpokunagama, Nittambuwa — in the Nittambuwa police division. Police recovered a foreign-made pen-shaped firearm with five rounds, along with four T-56 rounds, eight 9mm rounds and two 12-gauge shotgun cartridges.
That account places the disappearance in Kirindiwela, in the Gampaha District, while Ada Derana’s report on Wednesday describes the man as having been abducted, killed and disappeared in Kuruwita, some 60 kilometres away in the Ratnapura District. The two are not necessarily in conflict — a victim taken from one district and killed in another would fit both — but no outlet has set out the sequence, and neither report named the river.
Further police investigations are continuing. No charges arising from the alleged confession have been reported.
