Victim of bungled abduction dies
Rafik Jalaldeen
MAWANELLA: The driver of the owner of 'Lumala Bicycles' store died at
the Kegalle Hospital as a result of suspected poisoning after being
abducted while accompanying his employer to the Mosque on Sunday
morning.
Police believe the driver's abduction was a clear case of mistaken
identity. The elderly victim A.L.M. Nuhman was initially found
unconscious by passers by inside the hijacked vehicle at Ganetenna on
the Colombo-Kandy road around 6 pm the same day.
The leading Muslim businessman in Panadura had come for "Fajir"
(early morning prayers) to the Grandpas mosque on Sunday around 4.30
a.m. in his vehicle (WP-PB 1458) driven by Nuhman, Senior DIG(Colombo)
N.K. Ilangakoon said. "The driver was waiting for his employer until
9.30 a.m outside the mosque and then he had gone to a mechanic's shop to
pump air into the vehicle's tyres.
Since then he had gone missing," DIG Ilangakoon told the Daily News.
The businessman had lodged a complaint at the Grandpas police since
the vehicle and driver were missing, he added.
Police rushed to the scene responding to a call on the police
emergency line that a vehicle was found abandoned with a person lying
unconscious inside it in Ganetenna on the Kandy-Colombo main road on
Sunday around 6.00 p.m, SSP Kegalle Wilfred Mahanayake said.
"The unconscious man was taken to the Mawanella hospital by
villagers," he added. "The victim was alive but unconscious. He was
taken to Mawanella hospital and later transferred to the Kegalle
hospital where he died around 11.00 p.m," the SSP told the Daily News.
He said the victim was unconscious and the police could not obtain
any statement from him. "We believe that he was poisoned. We are waiting
for the post-mortem result. Some of the internal organs of the dead man
have been sent to Colombo for a special test," he added.
Nuhman who had been serving as the businessman' driver for over 20
years had been abducted by mistake whereas the latter was the intended
target, police said.
Grandpas and Mawanella police are conducting investigations.
|
