Lankan labyrinth

A man dies in Coimbatore and leaves a trail leading to Colombo. The R&AW and the Tamil Nadu Police seek to establish if he was history-sheeter Angoda Lokka

- LAKSHMI SUBRAMANIAN

AROUND THE TIME Sri Lankans gifted the Rajapaksa clan a landslide victory in the national elections in early August, the Tamil Nadu Police were hot on the trail of a crime story with roots in the island nation. Investigators suspect that a Sri Lankan history-sheeter, with links to the underworld and ambitions of being an actor, had been hiding in India for about three years. He was apparently running his drug network in Sri Lanka through WhatsApp.

It all started on July 3, when a Pradeep Singh died of cardiac arrest in Coimbatore. Curiously, even the police seemed to have been ignorant about the life and death of Angoda Lokka, originally Maddumage Lasantha Chandana Perera, until a journalist raised a question at a briefing, quoting a Sri Lankan newspaper. Lokka, aka Pradeep Singh, was reportedly living in a rented house at Cheran Ma Nagar on the outskirts of Coimbatore.

“He was here for the past one-anda-half years,” Inspector General of Police (Crime Branch Criminal Investigation Department) K. Shankar told THE WEEK. “The investigation is going on. We have taken Amani Thanji and Sivakami Sundari, who were with him, into custody. We will have to ascertain the facts.”

He added that Sri Lankan officials had not sought any details about Lokka yet. “Once they request, we will definitely share it,” he said. Sources said that investigators have asked Sri Lankan law enforcement agencies for Lokka’s fingerprints and DNA samples.

Apart from the CB CID, which has formed seven special teams for the case, the Research and Analysis Wing is also involved, and has held marathon meetings with the police.