Three arrested over torching PM’s residence remanded
July 10, 2022 06:38 pm
The three suspects arrested over the incident of setting fire to Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe’s private residence in Colombo have been remanded until July 20 by the Fort Magistrate’s Court.
On Sunday, Sri Lanka police arrested three people for setting Wickremesinghe’s private residence at Cambridge Place in Colombo on fire during the Saturday violence.
Among the arrested suspects is a 19-year-old residing in Mount Lavinia. The other two suspects were identified as residents of Kadawatha and Galle areas, aged 24 and 28 respectively.
More arrests are on the anvil, as the police have widened their scope of investigations, the police spokesman had said.
Meanwhile the investigations into the incident have been handed over to the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) today.
According to reports, protesters had stormed the PM’s private residence at Cambridge Place in Colombo late last night after which it had been set on fire, inflicting extensive damage to the property and damaging a luxury sedan.
During a protest staged outside the prime minister’s private residence last night, a group of people had stormed the premises which was later set on fire.
The residence was replete with a rare collection of books and old Buddha statues, most of which Wickremesinghe had inherited, a spokesperson of the Prime Minister’s Office said.
The incident came hours after Wickremesinghe offered to resign to make way for an all-party government.
Island-wide mass public protests were organized yesterday, demanding President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe to resign immediately.
Meanwhile the Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka (PUCSL) says that a special investigation is being conducted regarding the power outage in the vicinity of the Prime Minister’s private residence in Colombo at the time it was set on fire.
