(COLOMBO, LANKAPUVATH) – Investigation revealed that the fugitive stayed in India as Pradeep Singh and managed to obtain Aadhaar card.
Coimbatore city police arrested three persons in connection with producing false documents to help a Sri Lankan gangster Maddumage Lasantha Chandana Perera alias Angoda Lokka, sources said. Lokka died in Coimbatore and his body was cremated in Madurai early this July.
The entire deception came to light after his death was reported to police to facilitate moving his body to Madurai. Investigation by the police found that a woman from Madurai and a man from Tiruppur helped Lokka and a Sri Lankan woman named Amani Thanji forge documents that helped the two foreigners hide in Coimbatore illegally.
Amani Thanji (27) from Colombo, Sivakami Sundari (36) from Madurai and S. Dyaneswaran (32) of Erode, currently residing in Tiruppur, were arrested by the Peelamedu police on Sunday after investigation revealed that Lokka stayed in India as Pradeep Singh and he managed to obtain Aadhaar card on the same name as Indian national. They were booked under Sections 120 B, 177, 182, 202, 212, 417, 419, 466, 468 and 471 of the IPC for charges including criminal conspiracy and forgery of documents.
According to the police, Sundari approached the Peelamedu police station on July 4 stating that her relative Pradeep Singh died of cardiac arrest. She had submitted a copy of Aadhaar card at the station.
The police during investigation found that the Aadhaar card was obtained through forged documents and the deceased was Sri Lankan fugitive Lokka who was staying with Thanji at Cheran Ma Nagar on Kalapatti road in Coimbatore.
Further investigation found that Dyaneswaran and Sundari forged several documents for Lokka and Thanji.
It is learnt that Thanji took Lokka to a private hospital with complaints of chest pain late on July 3 where he was declared brought dead. The body was taken to the Coimbatore Medical College Hospital where it was autopsied the next day. Sundari approached the police on July 4 to complete post-mortem formalities after which the body was taken to Madurai and cremated.
Coimbatore City Police Commissioner Sumit Sharan said that a detailed investigation was under way with regard to the illegal stay of Lokka and Thanji and forging of documents. “We have information that he (Lokka) was involved in several crimes in Sri Lanka,” he added.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (Law and Order) G. Stalin said that the police was waiting for results of laboratory examination of the viscera samples of the deceased to arrive at the cause of death. Several Sri Lankan media had reported in July that Lokka was poisoned in India.
