Body found under a tree 150m from main road
Arrested carpenters spill the beans
Girlfriend’s father had obtained legal advice from politicians and a retired DIG
The body of 31-year-old youth Susitha Jayawansa from Kaballewa, Kuliyapitiya, who went missing since April 22 after visiting his girlfriend’s house to see her has been discovered after 15 days inside a forest reserve in Panirendawa in Madampe yesterday (7) morning.
It has been revealed that the missing youth who disappeared after visiting his girlfriend’s house in Ilukhena area in Kuliyapitiya after she requested him to come to see her on April 22 has been murdered, Police Media Spokesman DIG Nihal Thalduwa said.
Susitha who went missing has been running a grocery store of his own in Kuliyapitiya and has visited his girlfriend’s house with an employee of his store on that day where no information has been reported about him since then.
The body of the missing youth has been searched by the Police at the location inside a forest reserve in Puttalam area where the mobile phone of the missing youth has last been disconnected.
DIG Thalduwa said that the missing youth Susitha’s body was found after 15 days since he went missing on April 22 inside a forest in the Panirendawa area in Madampe, and it is not yet confirmed if the victim has been killed elsewhere and subsequently brought and dumped in the forest or if the victim has been murdered inside the forest.
He also said that investigations so far revealed that the victim had been murdered on the very same day on April 22 when he went missing after visiting his girlfriend’s house. Thalduwa also said that the Police are yet to find out how the murder has been carried out and the people involved in it.
Police arrested the father and mother of the main suspect Sujith Fernando alias “Singithi” who were in the house at the time an investigation team went to record a statement from the residents, after finding out that the main suspect, his wife and children had fled.
After receiving a complaint to the Police that Susitha has gone missing since visiting his girlfriend’s house, the Police launched investigations through several departments in areas under suspicion where the missing youth could be found and had gone to record statements to his girlfriend’s house from the family members and discovered that all household members had fled from their house.
Later, the Police released a photograph of the residents who have fled through the media requesting to inform the Police if there’s any information about the relevant persons.
The main suspect behind the disappearance of the victim, Sujith Fernando alias “Singithi”, the father of the missing youth’s girlfriend had surrendered to Court through his lawyers and was later released on two personal bails of Rs.500,000 each by the Kuliyapitiya Magistrate’s Court on Monday (6).
Meanwhile, the Police arrested two suspects residing in Welimada and Keppetipola areas who worked under Singithi, the father of the deceased’s girlfriend on charges for aiding and abetting the disappearance of the victim and on suspicion of committing a crime, where many vital clues regarding the disappearance were uncovered during their interrogation.
The arrested suspects have told the Police that the girl’s father Singithi has told them that his daughter was pregnant by Susitha and that he has tried to get them married and send them abroad, but Susitha the boyfriend of Singithi’s daughter has not agreed to his proposal.
The suspects under arrest have also told the Police that they together with Singithi have tied the hands of Susitha while he was at Singithi’s house and have taken him in a van from Kuliyapitiya area to Singithi’s main house located in the Dummalasuriya area.
The Police recently sought public assistance in finding a van in which the missing youth was reported to have been kidnapped where the Police succeeded in finding the van that had been abandoned in the Wilgamuwa area.
Police Media Spokesman said that further investigations will be conducted to uncover who murdered the victim and the cause behind murdering him. Since more than two weeks had passed since the youth was killed, the body had decomposed beyond recognition. Police said that the body was at the base of a large mahogany tree in the reserve. The body was found about 150 meters from the main road.
The investigating officers had received many information which suspected that Singithi had acted on the advice of two former powerful politicians of the North-West Province who are also lawyers.
After the Magistrate’s investigation, the body was taken to Chilaw Hospital for post-mortem examination.Police believe that the post-mortem which is to be held today will be able to confirm how the youth died.
Investigations are being conducted on the advice of North Western Province Senior DIG Kithsiri Jayalath, Kurunegala DIG Sujith Wedamulla and Kuliapitiya SSP Mahesh Kumarasinghe.
gayan kumara weerasinghe and Varuna Dayaratne
