Greed for money results in murder

It was a painstaking investigation done by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) to trace the killers of Dr. Priyanka Prasad Jayasinghe who vanished after firing nine shots from a 9.mm pistol. The killers made their escape on a motorcycle.

On that fateful night the two assassins had been waiting for some time near the doctor,s private dispensary at Mahaedanda at Karandeniya until the he emerged from the dispensary and walked towards his car parked on the opposite side. The assassins were clad in black clothes and wore helmets to conceal their identity. It did not take long for them to accomplish their mission. The ghastly episode took place on October 29 around 10.45 p.m., according to police.

Following the cold blooded killing of the doctor, the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) Director, Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Mahesh Perera sent a team of officers to Karandeniya to investigate the killing. He was instructed to do so by the Inspector General of Police (IGP) N.K. Illangakone. The sleuths working around the clock did not leave any stone unturned and managed to round up the suspects in less than a month. Following several clues the CID sleuths finally arrested an Army Captain stationed in the Northern Province.

Evident

It became evident that the suspect master-minded the plot to assassinate the doctor due to a personal grudge.

It also came to light that the Army Captain had owned the private medical laboratory at Karandeniya which was run by someone else. As he was a government servant who was not supposed to engage in private business.

Following the arrest of the Army Captain, the 9mm pistol believed to have been used in the killing was recovered from a house at Karandeniya. Police said the weapon will be sent to the Government Analyst for ballistic tests to determine whether the weapon was used in the killing.

“This will be done on a Court order,” a police officer said.

The manager who ran the Medical laboratory on behalf of the Army Captain was arrested by sleuths. Following the arrest of the Army Captain, it became apparent to the sleuths that he had orchestrated the plot to assassinate the doctor. It also came to light that two soldiers attached to an Army camp in the Northern Province acted as mercenaries and carried out the killing. The two soldiers, who are siblings are natives of southern province.

They have not reported to work at their respective camps and are believed to be on the run following the killing. The Army Captain is believed to have given the contract to the two soldiers to carry out the dirty job of eliminating the doctor. The soldiers who had been promised a sum of Rs one million for the job was only given Rs 2000 as expenses for petrol for using their motorcycle.

A CID team is hot on the trail of the two soldiers who are evading arrest.

Optimistic

“We are optimistic of apprehending them in the near future. The suspects are believed to be hiding somewhere, Police said. The Captain and the manager of the Medical laboratory were produced in Court and remanded till investigations are completed.

Police suspect the motive for the killing, the doctor was due to persanal animosity between the doctor and the Army Captain. Over the years, patients who called over at the private clinic of Dr. Jayasinghe were sent to the Karandeniya laboratory for medical tests.

However, when some medical tests were found to be faulty, Dr. Jayasinghe set up his own laboratory at his clinic for patients who needed laboratory tests.

The move however affected the Karandeniya laboratory adversely. There was a substantial loss of revenue which nearly drove him out of business. This angered the Captain very much and he decided to seek revenge by eliminating the doctor. He then hatched a plan to eliminate him forthwith so that he could carry on with his business without a hindrance.

On that fatal night as the doctor stepped out of his clinic to retrieve some belongings from his car, the two men waiting on the road side approached him and shot him at point blank range. The nine bullets pierced his head and the body and the doctor slumped to the ground. The assassins then rode on a motorcycle and disappeared.

There was no trace of them except for the spent bullets scattered on the ground. That night a few patients hanging around the dispensary may have witnessed the incident. But it is unclear whether anyone made a statement to the police regarding the ugly incident.

But when they heard the gunshots they rushed towards the scene and found the doctor fallen on the ground.

The critically wounded doctor was rushed to the Karandeniya Hospital where he succumbed to his injuries. Tension boiled over when villagers heard of his tragic death the following morning. The slain doctor was immensely popular among the natives of Karandeniya.

Attached

He was attached to the Karandeniya District Hospital. On October 3 the doctors at the Matara Government Hospital did not report for work as a mark of protest. Even business establishments in the Karandeniya town and in the adjacent towns were closed.

However trouble flared up at Karandeniya on the November 1 a month later following a breakthrough of the investigations. Sleuths working around the clock finally found the suspect linked to the murder case.

When it was revealed that a Captain of the Army and the manager of the health laboratory were the suspects, the area residents went berserk and torched their houses and business premises in Karandeniya and the Kurundugahahetkma areas.

When violence spilled out of control, Karandeniya area became a battle zone and the Police Special Task Force (STF) was summoned to bring the situation under control.

Dr. Prasad Jayasinghe the deceased was a past pupil of St. Theresa’s primary school, Elpitiya. He won a grade 6 scholarship and entered Ananda College, Colombo from where he entered the Colombo Medical Faculty.

After passing out from the Colombo Medical Faculty in 1998 he was appointed as a doctor at the Sri Jayewardenepura Hospital. In 2000 he was appointed a doctor to the Karandeniya District Hospital and worked there until he met with his untimely death.