“I always thought that one day Mr. Olugala would come and arrest me. After being imprisoned in Nepal for 7 months, I had had enough. I felt that going back to Sri Lanka would be better than living like this. But since I would get caught by the police if I returned to Sri Lanka, I stayed here,” said the suspect named Ishara Sewwandi when she was arrested in Nepal.
Ishara Sewwandi, who is considered the main mastermind behind the plan to assassinate the underworld leader Sanjeewa of Ganemulla by shooting him at the Colombo Aluthkade Court Complex, was arrested the night before last (13th) while hiding in a luxury house in the Thibbas Park area of Bhaktapur District, Nepal.
Along with this suspect, four others including members of the underworld were also taken into police custody.
The underworld group was captured during a three-day raid in Nepal carried out by Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Rohan Olugala, Director of the Peliyagoda Crime Division, and Police Inspector Gihan de Silva of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID).
With the support of the Nepal Police and Interpol, Mr. Rohan Olugala, who went there with local officers, arrested the criminals on the night of the 13th.
The operation was launched under the full supervision of Inspector General of Police Priyantha Weerasooriya and Senior Deputy Inspector General of the CID Asanka Karawita, starting from Saturday the 11th, and carried out by ASP Rohan Olugala and Inspector Gihan de Silva.
During interrogation of Kehelbaddara Padme, police were able to identify the location where Ishara Sewwandi was hiding. The operation was initially launched by Mr. Rohan Olugala.
Following the notification to the Nepal Police and Interpol, IGP Priyantha Weerasooriya took steps to obtain their support for the operation.
Accordingly, Mr. Rohan Olugala and Mr. Gihan de Silva went to Kathmandu, Nepal, and held discussions with the local police about the operation.
Later, with support from Nepalese police, the officers successfully identified the exact location where Ishara Sewwandi and the other underworld criminals were hiding.
Ishara Sewwandi was hiding in a luxury house in Thibbas Park, Bhaktapur, an old city area of Kathmandu. Houses in this area are rented at high prices due to their luxury.
ASP Rohan Olugala and Inspector Gihan de Silva took lodging in a house adjacent to the one where Ishara was hiding.
From that house, they launched the operation. First arrested was Kennedy Bastianpillai, also known as “J.K. Bai”, who had been working as Ishara’s assistant.
It was later revealed that J.K. Bai had taken Ishara Sewwandi from Sri Lanka by boat to India and then transported her by train from there to Nepal.
After J.K. Bai was arrested and interrogated, Mr. Rohan Olugala, with the support of the Nepal Police, accurately identified Ishara Sewwandi’s location and arrested her.
When she saw Mr. Rohan Olugala, Ishara Sewwandi, visibly shocked, reportedly said:
“Olugala Sir!” while taking a deep breath.
At that moment, Mr. Rohan Olugala responded,
“Ah… How are you, girl?”
and arrested her with the help of a female officer from the Nepal Police.
During her questioning, Ishara Sewwandi revealed information about two more criminals and a woman involved in Kehelbaddara Padme’s drug and underworld network.
Following this, police began further operations to arrest those criminals. Later, three criminals who had been hiding in another location in Kathmandu were also taken into custody.
At the time of their arrest, “Gampaha Baba”, a powerful underworld leader from Padme’s gang, tried to bribe ASP Rohan Olugala with Rs. 5 million to escape arrest.
However, Mr. Olugala rejected all such offers and arrested the three criminals.
Among the suspects arrested was a woman named Thakshi from Chavakachcheri. She was found to have a face very similar to that of Ishara Sewwandi.
Upon interrogation, it was revealed that photos and data of this Tamil woman were to be used to prepare a fake foreign passport under her name for Ishara Sewwandi to flee to Europe.
The suspect J.K. Bai had agreed to provide all support for this plan, under instructions from Kehelbaddara Padme.
It has now been revealed that all of Ishara Sewwandi’s plans were disrupted following the arrest of Padme and her underworld gang in Indonesia.
During detailed questioning, Ishara Sewwandi revealed that after the killing of Sanjeewa in Ganemulla, she had hidden in several locations around Colombo for a few days.
Then she moved to the Matugama area, and from there to Mideniya, staying at safe houses.
When she arrived in Mideniya, J.K. Bai joined her again.
Police suspect that Ishara received support to hide in Mideniya from another criminal named Sampath Manamperi.
Later, J.K. Bai took Ishara to Jaffna, and from there, she was smuggled by boat to India.
J.K. Bai, who is in the business of illegally smuggling criminals out of the country via sea routes, had received hundreds of thousands of rupees from Padme to help Ishara escape.
After taking her to India, J.K. Bai kept Ishara there for about two weeks, and then took her by train to Nepal.
After a six-day long train journey, Ishara was smuggled across Nepal’s border using J.K. Bai’s personal connections.
He then rented a house in Kathmandu for Ishara to stay in hiding.
On February 19, underworld gang leader Sanjeewa of Ganemulla was shot and killed inside the Colombo Aluthkade Court Complex, based on orders from Kehelbaddara Padme.
