Money lender, four-year-old daughter gunned down in cold blood

Police suspect the gunman and his companion who were riding a motorcycle in a rubber estate last week to be professional killers who had a mission to accomplish. They had arrived at Polhena in Millewa when darkness enveloped the area. The gunman and his accomplice wore helmets to hide their identity.

They were found hanging around in a lonely place in a suspicious manner. The time was around 7.p.m. when they parked their motorcycle at an intersection almost 50 yards away from M.D. Susantha Premakumara's home.

He was a money lender and the suspects had been following him for several days.

The path in which the gunmen went was along a rubber estate that led to a gravel road in Polgahahena where Premakumara's father-in-law lived with his wife.

He and his accomplice had been waiting almost for one hour for Premakumara's arrival. Someone apparently had tipped the gunman about Premakumara's arrival at his father-in-law's house. Premakumara's wife too was employed in a garment factory in a nearby town.

The gunman having waited patiently for almost one hour finally spotted Premakumara on his motorcycle riding with his wife and her four-year-old daughter towards their father-in-law's residence around 8 p.m. Daughter was seated between her parents.

The gunman then pulled out his pistol from his trouser pocket and aimed it at the motorcyclist.

He fired three shots repeatedly at him while negotiating the bend at the junction. The two shots hit Premakumara on his chest and the head while the third shot hit daughter's head wounding them fatally.

Bleeding

The three of them slumped on to the ground following gunshot injuries. Premakumara, 32 and his daughter Roshana, 4 lay on the ground in a state of unconsciousness, bleeding profusely. His wife Samanthi Chandrika (26), though not fatally wounded, sustained a gunshot injury on her hand. When she screamed for help, Premasiri emerged from a home closeby and rushed towards them to see what happened.

When he walked towards the junction he saw a girl and a man lying on the road in a pool of blood.

The man was unconscious, but the wounded girl was gasping for breath. With the help of the three-wheeler taxi driver Premasiri rushed them to the Horana Hospital where the father was pronounced dead on admission.

The critically wounded girl who received treatment at the Horana Hospital later succumbed to her injuries, while her mother was discharged from the hospital on the following day with minor injuries, police said.

No sooner the shooting was reported to the Moragahahena police, the OIC Inspector Kithsiri Kumara and OIC Crimes Inspector Hettiarchchi visited the scene of the crime, but did not find any spent bullet casing at the scene of the crime. Strange enough nobody knew how the spent bullet casing disappeared from the scene of the crime. Police believe that the victim was shot with a .380 revolver commonly issued to service personnel or perhaps with locally improvised Galkattas. OIC Crimes, Inspector Hettiarchchi learnt that Premakumara had lent Rs. 3 1/2 lakhs as a loan to a merchant at Lakshapathiya, Moratuwa a few years ago which he failed to return.

Questioned

However, when the police questioned the merchant regarding the outstanding sum of money which he owed Premakumara, he had told the police that he was about to return the money when he learnt of the tragedy.

According to the police Premakura had made a complaint against the merchant regarding the outstanding sum of money at the Moraganahena police station some time ago. Sources said that Premakumara was known in the village as ‘Fizal'. He rose from rags to riches by seizing stray cattle of other people and by selling them to a merchant called ‘Fizal’ who supplied them to slaughterhouses in the Kalutara district and elsewhere.

It was also alleged that Premakumara associated with underworld gangs responsible for house-breaking and thefts in the Kalutara district where he shared the loot with them. Later he amassed wealth and became a money lender in the village.

Three police teams along with the Mirihana Crime Diviison have launched an investigation to apprehend the suspects under the direction of DIG Colombo South Sumith Edirisinghe and SSP Panadura Dharmasena.