Gruesome killing of youth :

Mother helps police arrest suspects

It was in the morning on October 9, when a girl staying at a boarding house at First Lane Tewatte, Ragama noticed a car pulling along side the road and someone alighting from it. She then noticed a man opening its dickey and dumping two white coloured sacks on the ground.

Thereafter, he poured some liquid on them and set fire before driving away. The girl who became suspicious rang the Police Emergency number 119 which in turn informed the Ragama police station about the complaint.

When the message was conveyed to OIC of the Ragama Police station, Inspector Rohan Pushpakumara along with the OIC Crimes Inspector Aluthgedera and other policemen rushed to the scene. When he arrived at the spot he saw the partly burnt gunny bags that contained body parts of a man .

A man had been cut into seven pieces and his body parts were inside two white sacks. He then began to ponder over those who had been killed by underworld gangs in recent times. But he could not connect any victim to match the body found inside the gunny bags.

Sacks

The killers having cut the body into seven pieces had put them into two sacks and transported it to Ragama where they dumped them and set fire to prevent identification of the victim. Police found the corpse of a young man between 25-30 years of age. The victim had been stabbed in the stomach before severing the head from the body.

The police knew that several men would have been involved in the killing. Thereafter messages were relayed to other police stations giving a detailed description of the body found at Ragama.

The disappearance of a young man named Janaka Manjula who lived at Biyanwila had been reported to the Kadawatha police station on October 7 by his mother.

He was 30, employed at a foreign liquor outlet at a dutyfree shop in Katunayake.

He had gone to watch the T20 cricket final at the Keththarama Stadium but had not returned home. His mother had complained to the Kadawatha police station that she suspected foul play over her son’s sudden disappearance. She also gave a detailed description of her son's associates who lived in the Kiribathgoda area. When the message was relayed to the Ragama police station the description matched with the corpse.

Police learnt that Janaka Manjula was a bachelor who had homosexual relations with his friends in Kiribathgoda. His friends had been young unemployed men who had attended well-known schools in Colombo. They often had met Janaka Manjula at a restaurant and at a billiard room in Kiribathgoda where they often spent the evenings.

It was also revealed that Manjula often had homosexual encounters with his young friends in a room adjacent the billiard room. The police team having gathered this vital information on sexual activities of Janaka Manjula arrested one of his close associates who later spilled the beans after a lengthy interrogation. Police later arrested the four young men who had allegedly killed Janaka Manjula to steal his gold chain and Rs. 12,500 from him.

Vigil

On the day of the incident Janaka Manjula after watching the T-20 cricket match had returned to Kiribathgoda where he met his four friends at the restaurant.

Having consumed liquor they had retired into a room adjacent to the billiard room upstairs. Two of his friends entered the room while the other two kept vigil downstairs .

When Manjula pulled out his shirt and lowered his pants one of his friends allegedly stabbed him while the other plunged a knife into his belly.

The other man then grabbed the gold chain from his neck and pulled out the wad of notes from his trouser pocket. Manjula with a stab injury on his belly slumped on the ground bleeding profusely.

One suspect then cut his neck. Everything happened so quickly that the four suspects did not know their next move. Manjula was bleeding profusely.

The suspects had locked the room and went home. On the following day they met at Kiribathgoda and proceeded to Battaramulla where they hired a car.

In the wee hours of the morning they returned to the lonely room upstairs with two white sacks and a knife purchased from a boutique close by, police said.

The four men had then cut Manjula's body into seven pieces and packed them into two sacks and stealthily brought them downstairs and loaded it into the car.

Police said they were able to solve the case because of the cooperation extended by Manjula's mother. The four suspects between 19-20 years were arrested by the Ragama police.

They were produced before the Negombo Magistrate courts and remanded. OIC Ragama Police station Inspector Rohan Pushpakumara OIC Crimes Inspector Aluthgedera along with Police Sergeant Ll Premasiri are conducting futher investigations under the direction of SSP Mahesh Perera of the Kelaniya Division.