24-year-old man murdered, burnt, and dumped into the Kelani River

A year after a family pleaded in front of the Presidential Secretariat, asking for their relative who disappeared a year ago to be found, they received extremely tragic news. The Colombo District Crime Division revealed that the 24-year-old young man had been brutally murdered, burned, and thrown into the Kelani River.

The young man who faced this unfortunate fate was Kulandai Jesu Seran, a resident of Sedawatta Road, Wellampitiya. According to a senior police officer, on October 11, 2025, he went with two individuals to a vehicle repair shop in the Kambi Kotuwa Watta area, within the Grandpass police division. Several other people had also joined a birthday party held there, and it has been revealed that they stayed there drinking alcohol until dawn the next day.

As the young man who went to the party did not return home, his worried relatives filed a complaint with the then Grandpass Police, and later they went in front of the Presidential Secretariat, requesting that the young man be found. Meanwhile, police investigations revealed that the owner of the vehicle repair shop where the young man was last seen, along with another person, had fled the area. Accordingly, on October 14, 2025, the Grandpass Police reported the facts to the court and commenced preliminary investigations, also taking steps to obtain a foreign travel ban order to prevent the suspects from leaving the country.

Subsequently, by order of Senior Deputy Inspector General of Police Sajeeva Medawatta, who is in charge of the Western Province, this investigation was assigned to the Colombo District Crime Division under Section 125 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. Accordingly, under the guidance of its Director, Senior Superintendent of Police Indika Lokuhetti, and the instructions of OIC Chief Inspector Asanka Suraweera, and led by OIC Chief Inspector Kapila Kariyawasam of the Organized Crime Investigation Unit, a confidential investigation was launched on April 21, 2026, by reporting the facts to the Colombo Chief Magistrate's Court.

Based on confidential information received by these investigating officers, the police succeeded in arresting the owner of the vehicle repair shop near the Mabola Kalu Palama (Black Bridge) on the Colombo-Negombo road. Interrogations of the main suspect revealed the full details of a cruel crime that had been hidden for a year. Police state that the young man was assaulted and murdered at the party, and then his body was loaded into a cab, taken to the Pugoda police division, and burned in a deserted area behind a factory. The investigations also revealed that the perpetrators did not stop there, taking the body to the Kosgama police division and throwing it into the Kelani River from the Aswantha Bridge.

The police were also able to locate the motorcycle that the murdered young man had ridden to the party, which had been dismantled and hidden in a house in the Sella Kataragama area, based on the main suspect's guidance. In addition to the main suspect, the police state that three other suspects connected to this crime were arrested in the Nugegoda and Wattala areas. The police further state that among the four arrested individuals are two businessmen, and these suspects are scheduled to be produced before the court.