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The party that turned into a murder spree
The former Special Forces soldier organised a party for his friends at a guesthouse in Anuradhapura last Saturday. About 40 pals turned up, and with plenty of liquor and bites on offer, were enjoying the occasion.
Wasantha Soysa: Brutal end
Around midnight, the host made a request: he asked his guests to join him in wrecking a nightclub run by Wasantha Soysa, a rival businessman popular in the area for his karate expertise, and whose feats of strength are listed in the Guinness World Records.
Fifty-seven-year-old Soysa, a longstanding resident of Anuradhapura, had a colourful past: his father was Alfred de Soysa who was charged in the Kalattawa murder case in the 1960s and eventually hanged in 1972 after being found guilty (see sidebar).
The party guests’ instructions were to cause maximum damage to Soysa’s Panorama nightclub at Muditha Mawatha in Anuradhapura town after allowing the customers and staff to escape.
The guests were told that after completing their wrecking raid they could seize the club’s store of expensive liquor and party on. Some of the intoxicated guests readily fell in with the plan while others were hesitant.
These are some of the details gathered by police hours after the attack on the nightclub which ended with the murder of Wasantha Soysa, Senior Deputy Inspector General of Police (North Central Province) Ravi Wijegunawardena, told The Sunday Times.
The party guests were organised for the attack. To prevent identification their faces were covered with black cloth and their bodies draped with fertiliser sacks slit at one end. Cudgels prepared for the attack were handed out, and some of them had axes and swords.
Main suspect
They boarded a tipper and, after being driven to the club went on the rampage. Most of the attack was captured by several CCTV cameras inside the club. They were seen entering the place at 11.05pm.
The man who allegedly organised the attack, Tyronne Ranasinghe alias “S.F. Lokka” and his brother reportedly accompanied the mob. According to eyewitness accounts, Soysa had come out of his room despite warnings from an employee not to risk his life.
While most of the damage done to the club premises was captured by CCTV the location of the murder, outside Soysa’s room, was not in camera view.
Police investigations revealed the nightclub owner had been hit with clubs and swords while one person had also attacked him from behind with an axe.
Soysa, who had narrowly escaped death in 2008 when an LTTE suicide bomber set off an explosion at an election meeting in Anuradhapura that killed Major-General (retd) Janaka Perera and 28 others, was not lucky on this occasion.
Police, who made a breakthrough within 24 hours after the nightclub attack, have so far arrested 23 people including two navy deserters. S.F. Lokka and his brother are among those still at large.
Police on Thursday obtained an order to prevent the main suspect escaping from the country. A house in Mahabage belonging to his brother was searched.
DIG Wijegunawardena revealed an old quarrel between Soysa and S.F. Lokka is believed to have led to the attack and murder. He said that in June last year the main suspect had visited Soysa’s club and entered into an argument and been chased away.
Grieving: Wasantha Soysa’s wife, daughter and sister
Recently he had made another visit to the club but Soysa had turned him away and lodged a complaint with police that S.F. Lokka had tried to throw a grenade into the nightclub.
Police investigations revealed the complaint had been an attempt to get S.F. Lokka arrested. The rivalry had intensified since then, leading to the attack last Saturday.
There have also been a few complaints laid against Soysa for assaulting some customers of the Panorama club. The attack on the club and the murder were over in 10 minutes, and cameras showed the attackers grabbing expensive liquor bottles as they escaped.
The men drove off in the same tipper in which they had arrived and gathered at the “Thekka kele” (Teak jungle) after throwing away the clubs and an axe used in the attack. They continued their party for several hours more before returning to their homes.
But on the following day the arrests commenced, with some of them surrendering. Soysa’s son, Gisara Soysa, said that he had heard about the attack and rushed to the nightclub where he had seen the damage and his father lying in a pool of blood.
“There was no one who even attempted to take my father to hospital,” he said.His father was due to leave for Japan this week for a karate competition.
The day after the attack: The Panorama nightclub
Soysa has 11 exploits listed in the Guinness records, among them: breaking 525 tiles against his body in 75 minutes, breaking 104 tiles against his body within one minute, breaking 12 concrete slabs with his head and breaking 35 concrete slabs with his hands.
Meanwhile Anuradhapura businessmen are gripped with fear that a gang is trying to demand ransom from wealthy persons in the area following this incident.
The businessmen had complained to the police that they had received calls demanding money, with threats that failure to pay would result in a similar fate to that of Soysa.
One businessman of them had received a call demanding Rs. 200,000 and he had bargained down this amount to Rs. 100,000. The caller had demanded that the money be sent through a mobile phone cash transfer system. Anuradhapura police are probing these complaints.
Wasantha Soysa’s final journey. Pix by Athula Bandara
