COLOMBO – Sri Lanka’s most-wanted woman, who is accused of taking part in the brazen courtroom murder of a suspected top drug dealer, has been arrested in Nepal, police said.
Ishara Sewwandi, 25, is accused of having disguised herself as a lawyer in order to smuggle a revolver inside a hollowed-out copy of the Criminal Procedure Code into court in Colombo in February.
An accomplice, also dressed as a lawyer, was accused of then shooting dead Ganemulle Sanjeewa, who was on trial for drug-trafficking offenses. The accomplice was arrested soon after the shooting.
Sewwandi, arrested along with five others in Nepal this week, will be extradited to face murder charges at home, police spokesman F. U. Wootler said.
“We received support from Interpol to locate them, and IT and intelligence support and operational assistance from the Nepali police,” Wootler told AFP. AFP
Police, who had offered a reward of 1.2 million rupees ($4,000) for information leading to Sewwandi’s arrest, said she had first escaped to neighboring India by boat and then travelled to Nepal.
She was arrested along with another woman and four men, all allegedly linked to drug trafficking.
“In total, six people have been arrested after a four-day operation,” Nepal Police spokesman Binod Ghimire told AFP. “It was done in close coordination with Sri Lankan authorities.”
The man said to have orchestrated the courtroom assassination was arrested in Indonesia and extradited to Sri Lanka in June.
Wootler said another 22 Sri Lankan suspects, all linked to drug-related murders, were believed to be sheltering abroad, and that the authorities were in contact with Interpol to track them down. AFP
