An attempt to shoot a relative of the organised-crime figure known as “Kosgoda Tharaka” failed this morning when the gunman’s weapon would not fire, police said.
The assailant tried to discharge a 9mm pistol twice, and it failed on both occasions, Ada Derana reported. Kosgoda Police are investigating.
A second account of a Kosgoda incident
Hiru News reported separately on Sunday that a man suspected of carrying a firearm had attempted to force his way into a house in the Nanatota area of Kosgoda, and that Kosgoda Police recovered a round of 9mm ammunition near the residence afterwards.
In that account, a man had earlier handed a sum of money to the female owner of the house over some matter and left, Hiru reported. He returned shortly afterwards and tried to enter the house carrying what was believed to be a firearm. The woman, watching on CCTV from inside, called the police. She has lodged a complaint.
The two reports share the same town, the same morning, the same police station and the same calibre of weapon, and a misfired round left at the scene would be consistent with a pistol that failed to discharge. Neither outlet refers to the other’s account, and neither states that the two are the same incident. Ada Derana does not mention a house, a woman or a complaint; Hiru does not mention “Kosgoda Tharaka,” a target or an attempt to shoot anyone.
Who “Kosgoda Tharaka” was
The man behind the alias is dead. “Kosgoda Tharaka” was shot dead by police in May 2021, in a killing reported at the time by the Daily Mirror and The Morning. Ada Derana’s report does not mention this, describing him only as a notorious organised criminal figure.
That makes today’s target a relative of a gang leader killed five years ago — a detail no outlet explains, and one that leaves the motive open.
Kosgoda, in the Galle District on the southern coast, has featured in organised-crime reporting before. In April, the Special Task Force arrested a suspect at a lodge in the Kosgoda Police Division hours after a T-56 rifle attack on a man in a three-wheeler in nearby Ahungalla.
Update — a third account ties the two together
September 6, later. NewsFirst has reported the case in terms that bridge the gap between the two accounts above, headlining that a 9mm live round was found near the residence of a female associate linked to “Kosgoda Tharaka”.
That single sentence carries every element the earlier two reports each had only half of: Hiru’s house, woman and recovered 9mm round, and Ada Derana’s link to “Kosgoda Tharaka.” It is the first report to state that the woman at the house is connected to the dead gang leader, and it makes the two accounts very difficult to read as separate incidents.
NewsFirst adds that CCTV footage captured an individual arriving at the residence last night — placing the visit in the hours before the morning incident — and says the purpose of the visit has not yet been revealed. Kosgoda Police are continuing investigations.
Two points still do not line up. NewsFirst, like Hiru, describes a found round rather than a failed shot, and does not repeat Ada Derana’s account of a pistol that would not fire twice. And where Hiru placed the man’s arrival and the money handover on the same morning, NewsFirst puts the CCTV sighting the previous night. No outlet yet describes the whole sequence.
The woman is now described three ways across three newsrooms — Hiru’s “female owner of the house,” Ada Derana’s unnamed “relative of Kosgoda Tharaka,” and NewsFirst’s “female associate.” Whether relative and associate are the same relationship, or the same person, is not stated anywhere.
Not reported
No outlet has named the target or the suspect, said whether anyone has been arrested, or given a motive. None has said whether the pistol was recovered, whether the failure to fire was a mechanical fault or defective ammunition, or whether the weapon has been linked to any earlier offence. None reported whether the target is under protection, whether the individual on the CCTV footage has been identified, or what the money handed over was for. No outlet has connected the case to any of the southern-coast gang disputes already on the record, and none has confirmed in its own words that the reports describe a single incident.
