SLPP MP’s killing: Two more suspects taken in

Police investigating the killing of Polonnaruwa District SLPP MP Amarakeerthi Atukorale have arrested two more suspects.

Police headquarters spokesperson SSP Nihal Thalduwa said that both suspects, aged 22, were residents of Nittambuwa and Polgahawela. According to him, investigators had recovered the clothes the suspects were wearing at the time of the crime. The police Spokesman described one of the suspects as a heroin addict while the other worked at a place that collected scrap iron. Police have recovered a knife from one of the suspects.

The MP was returning home from Temple Trees after attending a meeting chaired by the then PM Mahinda Rajapaksa when mobs carrying lists of names of people they wanted, killed him and his police

bodyguard in the Nittambuwa police area.

Sources said that they had been lynched after one of them or both opened fire at those blocking their vehicle. One of those who received gunshot injuries later succumbed to his injuries at the Wathupitiwela hospital.

SSP Thalduwa said that so far four persons had been arrested in connection with the killing of MP Atukorale and his police bodyguard.

(SF)