He was the main suspect in the case where Kaduwela Wasantha was killed along with seven of his men several years ago. He was abducted from the house where he stayed with a woman with whom he was having a relationship.

Kumara was thought to have fled from Colombo after the Kolonnawa shooting incident two weeks ago in which Minister Bharatha Lakshman Premachandra and four of his aides were killed. He had reportedly worked as a strongman for a Colombo politician. Murder, ransom, robberies, large scale drug running were among the major crimes Kumara was said to have been involved in, said a senior police official. According to this official the suspect had committed as many as thirty murders.

It was suspected that in addition to the murder of Kaduwela Wasantha and his seven aides, Kumara had even murdered one of his own aides during a robbery at a cigarette sales centre, the police official said. One of the members elected to the Kotikawatta Mulleriyawa Pradeshiya Sabha at the recent local government election was said to be a relation of this underworld thug.

The murder of a police officer at the Athurugiriya Junction, the gunning down of two persons in Madinnagoda, the murder of another in Nawagamuwa, Wanduranmulla, the murder of five persons in Wellampitiya, as well as two other murders in Kolonnawa were also attributed to this thug nicknamed Karate Dhammika.

Source: Daily Mirror - Sri Lanka