Police have arrested a close associate of the organised crime figure and drug trafficker known as “Welle Saranga” while he was allegedly preparing to murder a businessman at Anguruwathota, Horana, Hiru News reported at 8.08 a.m.
Officers of the Western Province North Division Crime Division made the arrest in an operation mounted on specific information, Hiru reported. Taken into police custody with the suspect were a T-56 automatic rifle, one magazine and 10 live rounds, which Hiru says had been prepared for use in the killing.
The attempt was directed by Welle Saranga, who is currently abroad, according to Hiru. The Anguruwathota police and the Western Province North Division Crime Division are conducting further investigations.
NewsFirst reported the same arrest, giving the same weapon and the same 10 rounds, and placing the intended target in the Aguruwathota area of Horana. NewsFirst does not mention the magazine, and attributes the arrest to “police” without naming the division.
On the place name and the count
The two filings differ on one letter. Hiru’s Sinhala reads අඟුරුවාතොට — Anguruwathota; NewsFirst renders it Aguruwathota. The Sinhala spelling is the one to search on.
On the ammunition count, both fetched filings agree on 10 rounds. A higher figure of 16 rounds, together with a stated motive and the suspect’s age, has circulated in summaries attributed to an Ada Derana report on the same arrest. Ada Derana has returned an HTTP 403 to this desk for 32 days, so that filing could not be read, and this desk does not report figures it could not verify against the page carrying them. The two sources it could read both say 10.
Saranga’s own status is unresolved
Hiru describes Welle Saranga as “currently abroad” and as having directed the plot from there. That sits awkwardly against this desk’s own archive.
On 30 August, Dubai police arrested Saranga Pradeep — the same man — at his residence in the emirate, acting on intelligence passed by Sri Lankan investigators who were there on the “Bus Lalith” operation. Hiru reported at the time that arrangements were under way to bring him back to Sri Lanka within weeks; the Daily Mirror said Sri Lankan authorities had not yet received official notification of the arrest.
Nearly two months on, neither of today’s filings mentions the Dubai arrest at all, and neither says whether he is in custody abroad, has been released, or was never repatriated. A man police describe as directing a murder attempt from overseas was reported arrested overseas in August. This desk does not assert the two accounts are inconsistent — a man can be in custody and still be “abroad” — but no filing closes the gap, and it is the open question on this story.
Not reported
Neither filing names the suspect, gives his age, names the targeted businessman, or states a motive. Neither says when the arrest took place, where the weapon came from, or whether the suspect has been produced before a court.
