Are we stuck in the grip of violent crime?

The murder took place around 9.45.pm. last Saturday when the old man was alone at home. The assassin stealthily tip toed into the house after night fell. He spotted the old man stretched on his bed in the drawing room. He was relaxing after a rough and tumble bus ride that brought him from Colombo.

The assassin grabbed a bottle lying on a table near by and then walked up him without being noticed. Using sheer physical force he smashed the bottle on the old man's head who started bleeding profusely. Later when he fell unconscious to the ground both his hand were tied behind his back, his mouth gagged and then with a piece of cloth wrapped around his neck was strangled to death.

A gruesome murder of an old man. The assassin thereafter had ransacked the cupboards and copies of deeds were seen strewn on the ground when police arrived at the scene. It is still not known whether his valuables were plundered by the rapacious killer.

His body was discovered by the man who used to supply meals to him. When he took his dinner that night he saw the old man gagged and fallen on the ground. The very same man informed the Horana police about the murder.

It was the brutal killing of Simon kotalawala (90), a wealthy landed proprietor and a patriarch of the village who led a solitary life in the outskirts of Horana. The police are yet to make arrests although several persons in the village have been questioned.

Kotalawala lived in a desolate village at Meewanapalana, Dambara all by himself in spacious old house on a six acre land. The house was surrounded with a shrub jungle, police said.

Several vital clues are being perused to ascertain the motive for the murder. According to police there was animosity over lands that he owned in Horana and elsewhere. He held the title deeds of several lands in the area.

There were several disputes regarding these lands that he possessed with neighbours. Many had ended up in litigation. There were four land cases pending before courts his family said.

However nobody seems to have any inkling about the murder or persons who orchestrated it. But the police are optimistic that the killer would be found soon. A dastardly act killing an octogenarian. It is obvious that persons who have had an axe to grind would have committed the murder.

After all he was a well respected senior citizen in the village. He had retired from government service some years back having served in the Co-operative Department for several years. A devout buddhist who had contributed several articles to newspapers regarding Buddhist clergy. He lived a secluded life at Meemanapalana after his wife pre deceased him in 1997. A father of three sons and a daughter who lived separately.

According to his family, he was quite hale and hearty and was able to get about without help from any quarter. According to his son Ranjith, his father had called at his residence last Saturday and had spent a few hours with him before returning home. He had even expressed sorrow on the passing away of Venerable Akuratiye Amarawanse Thero and was in a perturbed state of mind.

After getting back to Meewanapalana in a bus, he had decided to walk home. Despite his age, the old man was quite accustomed to travel about in buses as he thought he was safe.

After alighting from the bus he decided to walk home that night when a friend offered him a lift home. On his way home he had stopped at an alms giving in the neighbourhood and thereafter had proceeded home. His family members are shocked by the killing.

Are we stuck in a grip of violent crime happening in cities and in suburban areas. Several such murders committed in the past have gone unsolved. Police should relentlessly pursue clues and bring the culprits to book as quickly as possible.

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