Police have arrested eight security guards attached to a private cashew plantation in Wanathawilluwa after a 34-year-old resident of Kaladiya was beaten and fatally shot at the estate on Tuesday, Ada Derana reported.
According to police, preliminary investigations indicate the victim had entered the plantation to collect cashew nuts when he was confronted by estate security personnel, assaulted and then shot with what is believed to be an air rifle. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Authorities seized four air rifles believed to be linked to the case. The eight arrested suspects are aged between 19 and 41 and are residents of Ettale, Puttalam, Kalpitiya and Anuradhapura. The victim’s body was placed at the Puttalam Hospital morgue for a post-mortem examination.
Further investigations are being carried out by Wanathawilluwa Police, the same division that handled the recent leopard-skin and unlicensed-firearms recoveries linked to a former Senior DIG in the area.
