Manoj Muthukumara, known as ‘Kaiwaru Muthu’, has been taken into custody by the Criminal Investigation Department after being deported to Sri Lanka from the United Arab Emirates.
CID officers detained him at Bandaranaike International Airport in Katunayake as he arrived in the country, the Daily Mirror reported. He had been arrested earlier in Sharjah before being put on a flight home.
He is expected to be handed over to the Western Province South Crimes Division for further investigation.
Hiru News reported that Muthukumara is regarded by investigators as an associate of the organised crime figure known as ‘Samayang’. The outlet’s own photograph of the arrest shows a handcuffed man being escorted by plainclothes officers through an airport terminal, past luggage trolleys and arriving passengers — consistent with both accounts placing the arrest at the airport on arrival.
A second arrest
Hiru News reported in the same filing that the Illegal Assets Investigation Unit has separately arrested a sister of the organised crime figure known as ‘Alto Dharme’ on suspicion of circulating more than Rs. 70 million in drug proceeds.
The suspect is a 46-year-old resident of the Piliyandala–Madapatha area and was due to be produced before the Colombo Chief Magistrate’s Court. The two arrests are reported as separate matters, and neither outlet links them.
Not reported
Neither filing states what offences Muthukumara is wanted for in Sri Lanka, whether he faces existing charges or indictments here, on what grounds the UAE authorities detained and removed him, or when he left the country. Neither says whether he is among any previously announced group of deportees.
An arrest is not a finding of guilt, and no charges against either suspect had been reported at the time of writing.