Suspect in Kollupitiya murder case remanded till 29 March

The man held in remand custody in connection with the killing of his 49-year-old wife in a room of a star-class hotel in Kollupitiya was further remanded till 29 March by the Colombo Fort Magistrate yesterday.

The witness R. Kanagasabay, brother of the deceased, gave evidence led by SI Dissanayake of Kollupitiya police into the preliminary magisterial inquiry and said that his sister had been working as a Metropolitan Police Officer in London. He admitted in Court that his sister and mother stayed in the Kollupitiya hotel since January this year. He further admitted in Court that the he was unaware that his sister had gotten married to the suspect in this case. Finally, the witness informed Court, he was able to identify the deceased as his sister after seeing the body laid in the mortuary.

A supervisory officer of the hotel told Court that he was instructed by the hotel to inspect a room which was closed for a few days.

The witness stated that the room smelled bad, and when inspecting it, found a body wrapping with a bed sheet. He said that he opened the door of the concerned hotel room on 28 February and  that there was a written notice on the door stating “Don’t Disturb Me.”

Meanwhile, a hotel employee attached to the cleaning service told Court that she went to clean the room in the afternoon on 25 February but the suspect standing in the dock instructed her not to clean up the room.  IP Kulasekara the Crimes OIC of the Kollupitiya police informed Court that police would call for an expert analysis report from the Moratuwa Univesity regarding video footage which was taken from hotel security cameras.  

Police further submitted in Court that a psychiatric report regarding the suspect is yet to be received since the doctors are still examining him.    The Kollupitiya police had told court that investigations conducted so far revealed that the man had killed his wife over a disagreement about settling down in Britain.

Police said that though the wife had wanted to settle down in Britain, the husband had refused and this must have led to the killing.  

The post-mortem examination said the probable medical cause of death was due to a stab injury to the chest.   Sudarashani Kanagasabay’s body was found in a Kollupitiya hotel room on February 28 with several stab injuries.  The hotel staff in their statements had mentioned she was with a man in the room and were last seen together on 23 February. A knife, alleged to have been used in the crime, had been taken into police custody.  The Kollupitiya police are conducting further investigations.