Police have arrested the suspected gunman linked to the fatal shooting of a slaughterhouse owner in Wettumakada, Kalutara last week, Ada Derana reported. The arrest was made by officers of the Kalutara Crimes Division.
The suspect has been identified as 44-year-old Sampath Kumaratunga, alias “Bonchiya,” a resident of Payagala. According to police, he was apprehended while hiding in a house in Maligawatta after investigators gathered information through the analysis of surveillance camera footage from areas around Maligawatta. The suspect has previously faced allegations relating to heroin trafficking and possession of narcotics.
He is scheduled to be produced before the Kalutara Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday (3), where investigators are expected to seek a detention order to facilitate further inquiries.
The arrest extends the case beyond a June 1 raid in Kalutara town that detained two earlier suspects along with a quantity of crystal methamphetamine, which initially pointed investigators toward a narcotics-linked motive. The newly arrested Payagala suspect is described as the gunman who opened fire on the victim — a 44-year-old slaughterhouse owner — who was travelling on a motorcycle when assailants in a car ambushed him in the early hours of May 28.
The Wettumakada killing is one of a string of targeted shootings on the southern and western coasts in recent weeks, sitting alongside an Ahungalla shooting linked to a local organised-crime figure and a murder in Dharga Town in Walipenna on May 23.
Update — June 8: The Kalutara District Crime Division has arrested a fifth suspect, a 36-year-old Hambantota resident believed to have aided and abetted the shooting, Newswire reported. He was taken into custody on June 7 in Walagedara (Welipenna Police Division) and handed over to Kalutara South Police. Investigations revealed that arrest warrants had been issued against him by the Magistrate’s Courts of Matugama, Kalutara, Tissamaharama, Walasmulla, and Morawaka. Three earlier suspects and the alleged getaway driver had already been remanded until June 15 by the Kalutara Magistrate’s Court for assisting and facilitating the killing. The alleged gunman is now under a seven-day detention order, and both the suspected shooter and the latest suspect were due to be produced before Kalutara Magistrate’s Court on June 8 for further proceedings.
Sources: Ada Derana; Newswire — Suspect arrested for aiding shooting in Kalutara; NewsFirst — Kalutara Homicide: Arrested accomplice found with warrants from five courts.
