Little Lassie, who was accidentally caught while searching for the person who stabbed Saif

Arumahandi Janith Madusanka de Silva, alias 'Podi Lassie', a powerful organized criminal from this country who was hiding in India, was brought back to Sri Lanka from Mumbai by officers of the Criminal Investigation Department on the 27th. This handover was a result of a special diplomatic request made by President Anura Kumara Dissanayake during Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's official visit to Sri Lanka last April.

There, a request was made to hand over twelve powerful criminals residing in India to this country, and accordingly, Indian authorities acted to hand over Podi Lassie to Sri Lanka as soon as his legal proceedings were concluded. It is stated that the remaining eleven criminals are also expected to be handed over to Sri Lanka in the near future. Many criminals who direct underworld activities and drug trafficking in this country are currently living abroad, and they use their financial power to employ local contract killers to commit crimes. However, the Sri Lanka Police has expedited operations to arrest and bring these criminals back to the country through international Red Notices as well as direct diplomatic relations maintained with security forces in various countries. 

According to Police Media Spokesperson, Attorney-at-Law, Assistant Superintendent of Police Udaya Kumara Wuttler, 29 organized criminals have been brought back to the country from 2024 to date, and 14 of them were brought back solely based on diplomatic relations without Red Notices. Furthermore, Red Notices have been issued for 89 more criminals, and the police aim to bring them back to the country within this year. A suspect in the Kadawatha double murder was recently brought back from Bahrain, and an underworld member from the Narahenpita area was brought back from India, both without Red Notices. Podi Lassie, after being released on bail by the court on December 9, 2024, safely left in his lawyer's car and later fled to Tamil Nadu, India, by boat from Mannar. 

 Despite a travel ban imposed on him, he managed to flee by obtaining a fake identity card through Indian traffickers. While many criminals hide in Tamil Nadu, he went to Mumbai for his safety and spent time around nightclubs there. Previously, to protect his life, he had also adopted the tactic of deliberately remaining in prison for several years without depositing bail money, even after being granted bail by the court. He waited in this manner and arranged to go abroad as soon as a suitable opportunity arose. His hidden life in Mumbai unexpectedly ended on January 16, 2025, with the controversial incident where an individual entered the house of famous Bollywood actor Saif Ali Khan and attacked him with a knife. Following this incident, Podi Lassie was arrested along with hundreds of suspicious individuals during a massive search operation conducted by the Mumbai Police across the city. 

Although he possessed a Tamil Nadu identity card, during intense interrogations, he was forced to admit that he was a Sri Lankan due to his inability to speak Tamil and his failure to explain the use of his unlimited money. Since there was a trial against him in India regarding the use of fake identity cards, Indian authorities did not immediately hand him over to Sri Lanka; the handover took place after those legal proceedings concluded. More than twenty other powerful Sri Lankan criminals, including Kimbula-ela Guna, Ladiya, and Bumma, are currently in the custody of Indian security forces. Podi Lassie's criminal history began on November 9, 2008, with the shooting death of his father, Arumahandi Wasantha, alias 'Panna', near the Thelwatta Tsunami Memorial. After his father's death, he entered the criminal underworld with a motive for revenge, killing a businessman involved in the incident on the seventh-day alms-giving ceremony for his father. Subsequently, in 2011, after attempting to shoot Janith Nishantha, his father's real killer, he fled to Dubai but was arrested in Sri Lanka after being deported through an international police operation. After being released on bail, he became known as a powerful underworld leader in the South after shooting and killing Manoj Mendis, the former chairman of the Rathgama Pradeshiya Sabha, at a tourist restaurant in Hikkaduwa in March 2015. 

After fleeing following the murder of Manoj Mendis, he was sentenced to Galle Prison in 2017 on charges of murdering a couple, including a five-year-old child, in the Idamthota area. There, with the assistance of corrupt officials, he used mobile phones to direct drug trafficking and other crimes, after which he was transferred to Boossa High-Security Prison. Even there, he joined criminals like Kanjipani Imran, Wele Suda, and Kosgoda Tharaka to issue death threats to prison officials, as well as to the then-President and Secretary of Defence. Investigations revealed that even while in the custody of the Criminal Investigation Department, he lived luxuriously, using cosmetic products, and after Kosgoda Tharaka's death, he had filed petitions with the Court of Appeal through lawyers to ensure his safety. It is reported that even when he was brought back to the country after his arrest in India, he behaved very casually at the airport, chewing gum without any fear.