Cops arrest three over death of Lankan gangster

COIMBATORE: Sri Lankan underworld kingpin Maddumage Chandana Lasantha Perera alias Angoda Lokka was living in Coimbatore in disguise till he died under questionable circumstances on July 3, police have found.
A Sri Lankan who was living with Lokka in Coimbatore, a woman from Madurai and a man from Tirupur who helped him obtain Aadhaar card were arrested on Sunday. Almost a month after his death, the probe by the Coimbatore police has put to rest speculations over Lokka’s whereabouts. There were rumours that Lokka was feigning his death so that he could move around in disguise.
According to police, Angoda Lokka was wanted in Sri Lanka for multiple offences. In the wake of a spate of killings in the island nation between Lokka and his rival gangs, he went underground since 2017. Police are yet to find when Lokka came to India or Coimbatore, but he has been living in Cheran Managar for the past few months along with Amani Dhanji, 27 of Colombo. “Lokka had obtained an Aadhaar card with a fake identity as R Pradeep Singh, age 35,’’ a police officer said.
Lokka had obtained Aadhaar card with the help of T Sivakami Sundari, 36, from Madurai and S Dhiyanesawaran, 32, from Tirupur. Amani, Sivakami Sundari and Dhiyanesawaran have been arrested. They were booked under 10 counts including criminal conspiracy, cheating, forgery, impersonation, giving false information and harbouring an offender.
On July 3, Amani Dhanji brought Angoda Lokka to a private hospital in an unconscious state where doctors declared him to dead and informed police. The dead body was sent to the Coimbatore Medical College and Hospital for postmortem. When police sought details of the deceased at CMCH, Sivakami Sundari told the Peelamedu police it was Pradeep, her relative. The body was handed over to her. Sundari and Amani took the body to Madurai and cremated there.
Since July 3, the day ‘Pradeep’ died, gangsters in Colombo lost contact with Lokka. The information was leaked to the Sri Lankan police, who approached Coimbatore police. Simultaneously, Sri Lankan media started reporting that Lokka was cremated in Coimbatore on July and that one of his sisters was made to see his body through a video call by his associates here.
Though a postmortem was done, police said the cause of death could be ascertained for sure only after a thorough lab test.
“The samples were sent to the regional forensic science laboratory. Only after toxicology report comes, cause of the dead could be ascertained,” said a senior police officer. Questions over the cause of death remain unanswered, and police do not rule out murder.
During the probe, Amani Dhanji denied poisoning Lokka, police said. According to a statement, Amani said that Lokka developed chest pain and collapsed.