(LANKAPUVATH | COLOMBO) – The main suspect arrested in connection with the suspicious death of a 16-year-old schoolgirl in Kalutara has been remanded until the 26th of May by the Kalutara Magistrate’s Court.
Kalutara Chief Magistrate Mrs. Nita Hemamalee Halpandeniya granted police permission to detain the 29-year-old suspect for 48 hours for interrogations following his arrest in Hikkaduwa on Wednesday.
The main suspect, Dhanushka Gayan Sabandu, a resident of Isuru Garden, Kalutara South, was arrested in connection with the death of Tihara Nirmani, a resident of Kalutara, Nagoda, whose nude body was found on the railway track behind the Sicilian Walk Hotel on Main Street, Kalutara South.
Four other people have been arrested in connection with the female student’s death and remanded.
According to the police, the deceased minor with the main suspect and another couple had come to the hotel on May 06 and checked into two rooms. They were seen drinking alcohol in one of the rooms.
The other couple, a young woman aged 19 and a 22-year-old male, have left the hotel after some time and after the main suspect had also left the hotel, the school girl’s body was found near the rail track behind the hotel.
The main suspect has claimed that the student had jumped from the third floor of the hotel and denied any accusations that he has committed a murder.
The young couple and the driver of the car in which the group arrived at the hotel were arrested earlier and remanded until 15th May.
Meanwhile, the wife of the hotel owner was arrested on Thursday (May 11) for failing to properly check the underaged student’s identity and the age before accommodating her at the hotel.
On Thursday, on the directives of the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), the investigations into the incident were handed over to the Criminal Investigations Department (CID).
