Police have arrested the motorcyclist allegedly involved in the shooting incident that took place in the Panchikawatta area of Maradana, Colombo this morning (6).

Police said that offices attached to Modara Police were able to arrest the motorcyclist within a few minutes of the shooting.

The suspect who was arrested is a 21-year-old resident of Bodhiraja Mawatha in Maligawatta and is a close associate of an organized criminal known as ‘Keselwatte Kavi’, police said.

Following the release of a police alert regarding the shooting, two Police Sergeants of the Modara police station, who were on night motorcycle duty, had managed to surround the fleeing motorcyclist with the assistance of another police officer.

The suspect had then fled to the Kimbula Ela Watta area in Madampitiya after his motorcycle had toppled on the road.

The three police officers have then launched a search operation in the area and the suspect, who had been hiding there, had managed to escape in a three-wheeler.

Accordingly, the police sergeants, with the assistance of an officer from a mobile unit of the Madampitiya Police, were able to stop the three-wheeler in question and arrest the suspect.

During questioning of the arrested suspect, it was revealed that the person who acted as the shooter was picked up on his motorcycle in the Keselwatta area on the instructions of an organized criminal, ‘Keselwatta Kavi’, and that after the shooting, the gunman had got off near the Pettah Night Market and that no further information was known about him.