Suspect held over freight forwarding manager’s death

by Jayampathy Jayasinghe

The Colombo Crime Division (CCD) sleuths took in for questioning the suspect wanted in connection with the murder of Vijith de Costa, a manager of a freight forwarding company in Colombo last week. He was arrested on Friday at his residence in Nugegoda.

The suspect who allegedly slit the throat of the manager with a knife at the Marine Drive, Bambalapitiya was evading arrest for almost one week. Police recovered the knife from a cemetery in Kotahena, police sources told the Sunday Observer.

The suspect, a textile dealer runs a business at a shopping mall in Kollupitiya. In the course of investigations it came to light that the suspect had stabbed the manager following overtures that he made towards his son over a period of time.

The manager had pursued the boy and sought sexual favours. However, when the son told his father about it he was furious and was determined to take revenge against the manager, police said.

On the day of the incident while the manager was driving his car he had met the father and the son walking along Fifth Lane, Kollupitiya and offered them a lift. The suspect had known the textile dealer and his family for quite some time. A heated argument followed when the father told the manager to stay away from his son and not harass him any further. The father had thereafter pulled out a knife and is alleged to have stabbed the manager on his throat at the Marine Drive at Bambalapitiya last Sunday, police said.

CCD sleuths produced the suspect in court and he was remanded till investigations are completed.

The son, too, is being questioned as to whether he had any complicity in the killing. “We are examining all evidence relating to the killing”, a senior police officer said. Director, Colombo Crime Division SSP, W.R.L. Ranaweera and ASP A. Ratnayake are conducting investigations.