Matara Magistrate Buddhadasa today (28) ordered the immediate arrest and produced the suspects before court of six officers attached to the Colombo Crimes Division, including former IGP Deshabandu Tennakoon.

Almost a year ago, when a group arriving in a white van opened fire on the W50 Hotel in Pelana, Matara, Weligama Police officers retaliated the attack resulting in the death of Sergeant Upul Kumarage, who was attached to the Colombo Crimes Division. The Magistrate, who concluded that the death was a murder, ordered the immediate arrest and bring before court of those allegedly involved in the incident.

The Magistrate, who delivered an 80-page verdict regarding the Magistrate’s Inquest into the death of Sergeant Kumarage, ruled that the deceased had died from gunshot wounds.

The Weligama Police received information in the early hours of December 31, 2023 that a group of people in a white van were shooting at the W50 Hotel in the Pelana area of Weligama, owned by the son of the former Governor of Sabaragamuwa Province, A.J. M. Muzammil. The police officers who responded swiftly opened fire on the white van, which fled the scene.

According to a notification from the Weligama Police, the police officers who had seized the white van at the Imaduwa Expressway entrance had taken two people in the vehicle who had gunshot injuries into the 1990 emergency ambulance and admitted them to the Galle Karapitiya Hospital, where one of the two people who had been shot had died. The deceased was Sergeant Upul Kumara, who was attached to the Colombo Crimes Division. It has been revealed that he is 46 years old, a resident of the Galewala area and a father of two.

It has been revealed that the other person who was shot was also a Sub-Inspector of Police attached to the Colombo Crimes Division.

In the face of protests regarding the incident, the investigation was transferred from the Southern Provincial Police to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), and officers of the Criminal Investigation Department submitted an investigation report related to the incident to the court.

After more than a year of magisterial investigation into the incident, the Magistrate, who announced the verdict and decided that Upul Kumarage’s death was a crime and ordered the Criminal Investigation Department to immediately arrest the individuals involved in the crime and produce them before the court.