A businessman in his late fifties has died after falling from a high-rise building in Colombo’s Kompannaveediya area, and police have begun an investigation into how it happened.

Both newsrooms that have reported the death say the man was a businessman resident in Battaramulla and that he fell from an upper floor of a tall building in Kompannaveediya — the district also known as Slave Island, in Colombo 02. Neither names him.

Hiru News, citing the Police Media Division, reported that a 60-year-old man from Rajagiriya Road, Battaramulla, fell from the 26th floor of a luxury hotel. The Daily Mirror, citing police, reported that a 59-year-old Battaramulla resident fell from an apartment complex.

Where the accounts differ

The two filings, published about 85 minutes apart on Sunday, do not agree on three points.

Date. Hiru says the fall happened on the afternoon of the 6th — Friday — and that the man had been staying in a room at the complex and fell from a point near it. The Daily Mirror says the incident occurred on the morning of Sunday the 8th, at around 10.55 am.

Building. Hiru describes a luxury hotel; the Daily Mirror describes an apartment complex. Kompannaveediya has several mixed-use towers combining hotel and residential floors, which may account for the difference, but neither outlet names the building.

Age. Hiru gives 60, the Daily Mirror 59.

LankaNewz has not been able to resolve these differences. Ada Derana carried the story under the apartment-complex description, and NewsFirst had not reported it at the time of writing.

The investigation

Neither outlet reports a concluded cause. Hiru says police have begun examining CCTV footage from the location to establish whether the fall was an accident or happened for another reason, and that the Magistrate of the Colombo Fort Magistrate’s Court attended the scene for the on-site inquiry.

The Daily Mirror says police are investigating whether the man fell accidentally or died by suicide, and that Kompannavidiya Police are conducting further inquiries.

Not reported

Neither filing names the deceased or identifies the building. No post-mortem result or inquest finding is reported, no witness account is given, and no family statement is included. Neither outlet reports why the man was at the building, and no suspicion of foul play has been raised by either.

An earlier version of this article reported the fall as having occurred on Friday 6 November from a hotel, following the single source available at the time. The Daily Mirror’s subsequent account differs on the date, the building and the man’s age; both are now set out above.

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