Thief who cut lady-executive officer's throat ... a relation of hers

Thief who cut lady-executive officer's throat ... a relation of hers

An incident was reported of strangling and cutting her neck with a sharp instrument of a manageress who was getting ready to go to work. This incident has happened in a house in Mawiththara area in Kesbewa and it was later revealed that a person engaged in robbery was taken into custody in this connection. On further investigations carried out by police, this thief was a relative son of the victim and that a hiring driver become an accomplice of his in this incident. He
was taken into custody on Sunday (9) and on further interrogation he had divulged everything by now, Piliyandala police say. 

According to inquiries made across SMS received on the victim's telephone the two responsible for the incident were arrested. It was an office manageress by the name of Niranjani Weerasingha, 54 years of age of two children living down Guru Gammana Road, Mawiththara, Kesbewa and serving at Wellawatta Branch of a private project affiliated to National Water Supply and Drainage Board. 

The knife used in the murder was hidden in the kitchen of the deceased manageress while two bank cards robbed from her purse and the bunch of keys of the house was located thrown aside a road close to Bandaranaika International Memorial Hall, Colombo according to statements of the suspects, police say. Police also say that both bank cards were broken up and destroyed. 

The suspect relation had come to the house of the manageress and had engaged in a  short dialogue with he and had asked for a loan of Rs. fifty thousand and when he was told that she she did not have money in her possession, the suspect has become angry and had reprimanded her, thus resulting in an argument, police say. Subsequently his relative was strangled and when she had collapsed in the hall of the house, he had dragged her to the bathroom and then slit her neck, the suspect had revealed. After that, the suspect has removed the gold necklace and ring she was wearing and after removing the two cards in her purse had taken her umbrella of the deceased before leaving the premises. The suspect has taken the umbrella into his hands in order to deal a blow on the pet dog in case he was to be bitten, he had told police. 

The suspect who then had come out of the house had closed the front door and after taking the key with him had left the house and has come as far as Maharagama, it was revealed on further questioning. The suspect who then got down a vehicle from a hiring service had told the driver that he does not have his identity card and had proceeded to pawn the gold necklace and ring he had robbed  at a pawn-brokering shop in Maharagama town and taken close upon a sum of Rs. one lakh. Next, he had strayed around in Colombo and had finally spent the night at a hotel in Atthidiya area, Boralesgomuwa, police say. 

Sub-inspector Mr. Indika Duminda who was alert about the SMS received in the evening hours on the mobile phone used by the deceased manageress and that incidentally was on the day of the murder. He had conveyed this to officer-in-charge, Inspector of Police Mr. Saranath Samarakoon and investigations were hastened thereby whereby an important clue was secured about the killing. Police say that it was initially revealed that the reason for the SMS received on the said mobile phone was because of someone utilising the deceased's bank cards. Police officers who understood from inquiries that these SMs were from a super market in Bambalapitiya after which the police officers had trecked to that sales outlet and on checking CCTV camera clips there it was further revealed that this suspect has left the premises there in a motor vehicle of a hiring company. 

- Bimal Shyamath Jayasingha -