Police have recovered a second cache of firearms in Hanwella on information from the detained organised crime suspect known as “Bus Lalith” — this time hidden inside the hollow of an old mahogany tree standing in a tank bund.
The Central Crime Investigation Bureau recovered two locally manufactured firearms, a magazine and two rounds of live ammunition during questioning of Kannangarage Lalith Kannangara, alias “Bus Lalith”, the Daily Mirror reported at 9.59 a.m. on Wednesday under the byline of Darshana Sanjeewa Balasuriya.
One weapon is a locally made firearm capable of firing 9mm ammunition, with a magazine. The other is a locally made firearm of the type known as a “galkatas”, capable of firing 12-bore ammunition. The two live rounds are 12-bore.
Where they were found
The hiding place comes from the Hiru account, and it is the detail the Daily Mirror does not carry.
The weapons were concealed inside a hollow in an old mahogany tree growing in a tank bund in the Dasavella area of the Hanwella police division, Hiru News reported at 1.58 p.m.
Police suspect the weapons were hidden there some time ago for use in a future crime, Hiru said. Kannangara is to be questioned further.
The Daily Mirror places the recovery at Pahathgama, Hanwella; Hiru places it at Dasavella in the Hanwella police division. Both lie within the same division, and neither filing mentions the other location. All recovered items are in police custody.
This is the second Hanwella cache, not a re-report of the first
On 7 September this desk reported a weapons cache dug up at a Hanwella cemetery on information from the same detainee — a T-56 assault rifle, a repeater gun and a pistol from a concealed underground cache, with four rounds of ammunition.
The two finds share a suspect and a police division and nothing else. September’s was a buried cache in a cemetery containing a military rifle; Wednesday’s is a tree hollow in a tank bund containing two locally made weapons. The weapon types, the hiding method and the dates are all different.
Who Kannangara is
Kannangara was flown back from Dubai on 25 August and handed to the CCIB on arrival, following a deportation process pursued alongside that of “Wanathe Chathu”. Police have said he is wanted in connection with offences across several police divisions, including murder, attempted murder, assault, extortion, arson and firearms offences.
He remains held under detention orders while the CCIB continues investigating, the Daily Mirror said.
A note on the name. This desk’s September article rendered him “Lalitha Kannangara”, following Ada Derana. Wednesday’s Daily Mirror gives the fuller “Kannangarage Lalith Kannangara”, and Hiru’s Sinhala gives “Lalith Kannangara”. This article uses the Daily Mirror’s form; “Lalith” rather than “Lalitha” is supported by both of Wednesday’s filings.
Not reported
Neither filing says when the weapons were recovered, how long Kannangara has been held, or how many separate recoveries have now been made on his information. Neither gives the calibre markings, origin or age of the two weapons beyond describing them as locally manufactured, and neither says whether ballistic testing has linked them to any offence.
Nothing states who owned the land the tank bund sits on, whether anyone else has been arrested over the cache, or what charge — if any — the recovery supports. Police suspicion that the weapons were pre-positioned for a crime is stated by Hiru without supporting detail, and no official is quoted by name in either account.
