Colombo Additional Magistrate Nishantha Peiris today issued an order preventing overseas travel of 5 businessmen in connection with the murder of Bambalapitiya-based businessman Mohamed Shakeeb Sulaiman, who was found dead in Mawanella after allegedly being abducted. 

The court order preventing them from leaving the country was issued by the court after considering a request made by the Colombo Crimes Division (CCD).

The partially decomposed body of the businessman, who was reported missing on Sunday (21) night, was discovered in the Mawanella area last evening following information received by police. 

The CCD and Kegalle Police are leading 8 investigative teams into the abduction and murder.

Speaking to Ada Derana, the Acting Police Media Director DIG Priyantha Jayakody said that the preliminary magistrate’s inquiry into the remains was carried out by Mawanella Magistrate L.K. Mahindage.

He stated that afterwards the body was taken to the Kegalle Base Hospital for the postmortem examination while police are currently questioning several friends and businessmen closely associated with the victim.  

Following the abduction, a phone call demanding a ransom of Rs 20 million had been made from the Kegalle area, which is close to the location where the body was discovered. This connection is also being investigated, he said. 

Meanwhile police sources say that the officers in the police teams assigned to investigate the murder have also directed their attention towards several businessmen who owed the victim money and those he owed money to.

Police are yet to determine whether the millionaire businessman was murdered at the location where his body was discovered in Rukulagama, Mawanella or whether he was murdered elsewhere and brought there. 

According to the complaint lodged with Bambalapitiya Police by the victim’s wife, Sulaiman had returned home after attending a function at around 11.15pm on Sunday (21) and had called out to his wife from outside their home in Kothalawala Avenue in Colombo 04.

However, when his wife had opened the door she only found a food parcel and her husband’s wristwatch on the ground outside the house. 

The complaint which had been lodged the same night states that she believes her husband was abducted by individuals hiding near their home.  

The following day police had sought the assistance from the public in order to locate the missing businessman. 

However, when a partially decomposed body of an individual believed to have died a couple of days back was found in Mawanella last evening due to the strong odor emanating from it, police had initially suspected that it was that of the missing man. 

This was confirmed when Sulaiman’s father and relatives had accompanied police officers form Colombo and identified the body through his clothing, jewelry, face and hair.