By Aruni Mallawaarchchi and Premalal Wijeratne

The mystery of textile trader Mohammed Sulaiman’s death is now resolved. The killers had no more chance to hide the truth. They have confessed to the crime and are now repenting.

Mohammed Sulaiman was abducted in the night of 21 August as he was returning home from a party. On his way, he called his wife and asked if she would come to have dinner outside. He asked her to bring food and wait until he came. He arrived home around 11 p.m.

“I am near the gate. Open it,” he said. He was unaware that a master plan was underway without his knowledge to harm him.

When his wife opened the gate, Mohammed was not to be seen. A car sped away leaving a parcel of food and blood stains on the ground.

Disappearance

The businessman’s disappearance took a new turn when his father received a call demanding Rs 20 million ransom to release his son.

While the Colombo Crime Division (CCD) was investigating the crime deploying four teams, his body was recovered from a deserted land in Rukulgama, Hemmathagama of Mawanella. Many believed that the abductors might have killed the businessman for fear of getting caught to the police. But the judicial medical report said the Sulaiman had been killed immediately after he was abducted.

Police sleuths traced the telephone number of the caller who demanded the ransom. The call had been made from a public call box in Kegalle. Police investigated all the CCTV recordings in the vicinity that led to identify the suspects. Accordingly, the mastermind of the plan was Sakeel Aslam. He was the financial manager of Sulaiman’s business and was one of his trusted employees.

Trusted employee

Sulaiman would never have thought that his trusted employee would plan to abduct and assassinate him one day. They were so close to each other and Aslam was aware of Sulaiman’s daily routine and his whereabouts.

Sakeel Aslam had planned the operation a month ago. With a cohort of like-minded eight men he followed him to find the most suitable time to kidnap the businessman.

They rented a car for Rs. 43,000 and followed Sulaiman on 21 August. They tried to abduct him as he got off the vehicle near his house. Aslam told them that it was not an easy task.

“We tried to drag him into our vehicle. When we tried to do so, he fought back and suddenly ran towards the sea side. One of us followed him and hit him on his head with the handle of a hook used by Nattamis.

There were several Nattamis in our group. Then we beat him until he fell on to the ground. Then we put him into the car. His head was bleeding. When we were travelling in the car, he started vomiting. We knew that his condition was critical. He did not speak and after sometime became silent. We realized that he had died. This happened two hours after the abduction,” Aslam has confessed to the police.

Changed the route

He also said, “We changed the route and went to Hemmathagama in Mawanella. Five persons were with us. The other three stayed out. While we were returning, we called them and asked to come to Rambukkana. I gave the car to another and returned to Colombo in a bus. It was around 6.30 a.m. I directly went to the shop and continued to work without showing any change in my behaviour.

“The five of us knew that Sulaiman was dead. The others thought that we were hiding him. Therefore, they called Sulaiman’s father around 9.30 a.m. and demanded the ransom. We panicked because the police had started the investigation.

“We broke Sulaiman’s phone and threw it into a jungle. We washed away the blood stains in the car using petrol. We did it after taking the vehicle to Polgahawela,” he said.

The four credit cards and the entry ticket to Katunayaka Airport which were in Sulaiman’s possession have vanished.

The CCD has arrested all the other suspects. CCTV camera recordings were immensely helpful for the investigations. All the eight suspects are in their early 20s. They are residents of Sedawatta, Jinthuwatta, Wellampitiya, Nagalagam Street, Wolfendhal Street and other areas of the city.

A police team led by IP Neville de Silva of CCD is conducting the investigations under the direction of IGP Pujith Jayasundara, DIG Lalith Pathinayaka and CCD Director SSP Nishantha de Zoysa.

Courtesy:Ceylon Today