• Major drug trafficker’s elder brother says he did not intend to kill her,  was just angry

By Darshana Sanjeewa Balasuriya  

The elder brother of Ellawala Liyanage Dharmasiri Perera alias ‘Dharmasiri’, a major drug trafficker operating abroad, who was arrested at the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) over the alleged murder of a woman near the Kahathuduwa interchange of the Southern Expressway, has been detained.  

 The 47-year-old Ellawala Liyanage Dunston Prasad Perera, the paramour of the victim, was arrested at the BIA as he attempted to flee the country on Tuesday night.  
The victim, a 41-year-old employee of the Civil Aviation Authority, was brutally attacked and killed near the Kahathuduwa interchange on Tuesday evening.    The victim, a resident of Madapatha in Piliyandala, was attacked while returning home from work.
During the questioning of the suspect, he confessed to the investigating officers that his wife left the four children and him with another person about two years ago.  
After that, he reportedly maintained a close relationship with the victim about two years ago and on many days, he used to come by car near the Kahathuduwa Expressway entrance and drop her off near her house on her way home from work.  
According to the investigations, he had been arguing with her over the phone since the morning of the day she was murdered.  
The suspect reportedly runs a visa consultancy office in Colombo and a building construction company.  

He confessed that although he went to pick her up on Tuesday afternoon as usual, he took a sharp weapon from his car and slit her throat due to his anger when she refused to come with him and tried to go in a three-wheeler.  

He reportedly told the police that he did not attack her with the intention of killing her, but later came to know that she was dead and then came to the airport to go abroad.  
Further investigations have revealed that the suspect has threatened to kill the murdered woman’s husband on several occasions.  

Due to this, the suspect and the concerned woman had quarrels and the woman was planning to go abroad with her husband in the face of the suspect’s threats.    
Meanwhile, the Kahathuduwa police found the car in which the suspect came in, for the murder, in front of the suspect’s Bekkagama house yesterday afternoon.