CID investigations reveal this woman had been killed by the serial killer identified as Neil Lakshman, who too, is under arrest.

The dead body of 39 year old Chandra Swarnalatha was found in a canal a few days after she had been murdered.

On instructions by the then IGP N.K. Illangakoon, the CID visited the scene and arrested the women’s son on suspicion.

The media reported at the time that he had made a confession, that he had killed the mother after she refused to give him Rs. 1,500 to buy a birthday present for his girlfriend.

However, on the first day in remand custody, the suspect had told prison officers that he did not kill his mother, and that the police had fabricated when it claimed that he had made a confession.

On 18 September 2015, a 49 year old woman Nathan Papu was killed and the CID arrested Lakshman, a father of three, on suspicion.

DNA tests have confirmed that he was responsible for seven of the killings at Kotakethana.

In another incident, a man by the name Siripala was arrested over the killing of two women, aged 63 and 23 years, on 19 July 2012, and on information given by him, several others were apprehended.

Three of them were indicted at the Colombo high court, and their lawyer Darshana Kuruppu got them acquitted by calling for a DNA report which the police had not submitted to court.

In May 2015, the court acquitted them after considering the DNA report.

Later, DNA tests confirmed that Lakshman was the killer in this instance too.