Colombo businessman’s killing

June 23, 2013, 12:00 pm

Navy divers comb bed of waterway for 5 hrs

By Chaminda Silva


The CID yesterday recovered, from the St. Sebastian Canal near Khettarama in Colombo, the mobile phone of millionaire businessman of Bambalapitiya Mohomed Shiyam abducted and killed allegedly by a group of policemen led by DIG Vass Gunawardena. It had been broken into three parts and thrown into the waterway.


The CID enlisted the help of Sri Lanka Navy divers to make the recovery which, the police believe, will help with the further investigations. The divers had combed the canal bed painstakingly for five hours before their efforts yielded results.


Investigators said they were hopeful that vital data could be retrieved from the SIM card.


Following the killing of Shiyam, one of his friends now in custody, Fauz Deen, had given the victim’s mobile phone to an aide to destroy it, the police said.


Five policemen, DIG Gunawardena, a Sub Inspector and three constables who worked under him have been arrested for killing Shiyam. Three civilian suspects including Deen, too, have been taken into custody. The DIG is now in remand prison while other policemen and civilians are detained for interrogation by the CID.


The CID officials have taken into custody two pistols, from the Peliyagoda police, believed to have been used in the killing.


The CID has found information to link the police personnel in custody to a series of grave crimes, mainly contract killings, abduction and extortion, sources told The Island.


Several other suspects who aided and abetted them in committing those crimes would be arrested soon, CID sources said.