Police arrest 29-year-old man over death of 16-year-old student in Kalutara
Sri Lankan police have arrested a 29-year-old man in connection to the death of a 16-year-old student who was found dead naked in Kalutara, Western Province, Sri Lanka.
Danushka Gayan Sahabandu, a resident of Isuru Uyana in Kalutara, was arrested in his hiding spot in Hikkaduwa area after police intelligence headed by Kalutara HQI Ruwan Wijesinghe that the suspect was hiding in Galle area.
It was gathered that the 16-year-old girl had lied to her parents that she was going to school; instead, she met the 29-year-old man at a hotel.
The girl, a resident of Nagoda area in Kalutara, died after falling from the third floor of a five-story building near the railway line in Kalutara city on 6 May.
Hotel personnel told the police that the girl came with another young couple and a young male and that they had rented two rooms on the third floor.
The employee narrated his observation of how the guests drank alcohol in one room even though they rented two rooms.
The young couple had left the hotel in panic after 20 minutes; the eyewitness told the police.
A few minutes later, the police gathered, and someone informed the hotel staff that a woman was lying naked on the railway track near the hotel.
Sri Lankan police were called to the scene and confirmed the girl dead.
The two other couples surrendered to the police while the cab driver who brought the group to the hotel was nabbed the following day, 7 May, in connection with the death of the young student whose identity cannot be mentioned for legal reasons.
HE was arrested in Hikkaduwa Ayearrea.
Police later found out that Danushka, the 29-year-old man was also at the hotel with the teenage girl.
Danushka is expected to be brought before the Kalutara Magistrate’s Court to obtain detention orders.
All suspects arrested in relation to the murder have been ordered to be remanded in custody until 15 May after being produced before the Kalutara Magistrate’s court on Sunday, 7 May.
Police discovered that the National Identify Card (NIC) produced by the 16-year-old girl to rent the room was obtained from her friends.
So far, it has not been confirmed whether the incident was a suicide or a murder, while investigations are underway presuming it was a murder, the police spokesman said yesterday.
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