Katuwellegama Suresh, a notorious organized criminal gang member and a key mastermind behind the recent violent riot at the Negombo Prison, has been hospitalized with severe injuries following a brutal assault inside his prison cell, department sources revealed. The attack is strongly suspected to have been carried out by a rival drug trafficking syndicate operating within the prison walls. Suresh reportedly suffered extensive injuries to his spine and back, leaving him completely unable to walk. While several unverified social media reports claimed that Suresh had succumbed to his injuries, prison authorities have dismissed the rumors, confirming he remains alive under heavy medical supervision.
The severe assault is directly linked to the massive unrest that erupted at the Negombo Prison on July 5 over an internal dispute involving drug trafficking. The initial day of violence resulted in the deaths of two inmates and left 34 others wounded. The situation worsened dramatically the following day, July 6, when a 10-member Tactical Force team deployed from the Welikada Prison—initially brought in to facilitate food distribution and relative visits at the inmates' request—was brutally ambushed by the rioters. The inmates took the officers hostage, subjected them to inhumane torture, and murdered several on the spot while leaving others critically wounded. The combined casualties over the two days of rioting reached a staggering death toll of 27 individuals.
According to a senior prison official, Suresh, a close associate of the notorious underworld figure Kehelbaddara Padma, orchestrated the large-scale violence from behind the scenes alongside a 13-member gang that included another criminal known as "Negombo Rocky." Investigators noted with suspicion that despite the high body count and extreme brutality of the two-day riot, none of the 13 conspirators sustained even a minor scratch. Beyond orchestrating the riot and the initial double homicide inside the facility, Suresh faces a litany of pending criminal charges, including large-scale drug trafficking, armed robberies, and a grave offense from a decade ago where he allegedly assaulted and bound a Buddhist monk and an assistant before vandalizing a temple stupa.
Following the horrific incident, prison authorities launched an immediate security crackdown, swiftly transferring high-risk inmates, including Katuwellegama Suresh and Negombo Rocky, to the maximum-security Boossa Prison in Galle. Dozens of other inmates, including those opposing the prison drug cartels, were scattered across various correctional facilities island-wide. However, this mass transfer has sparked further controversy as the Police Department launched a comprehensive investigation into the mysterious deaths of three transferred inmates at the Boossa, Angunakolapelessa, and Welikada prisons. The prison administration maintains that the inmates at Boossa and Angunakolapelessa died of sudden medical emergencies after being hospitalized, while the inmate transferred to Welikada committed suicide.
In stark contrast to the official narrative, the Committee for Protecting the Rights of Prisoners (CPRP) issued a strong statement rejecting the administration's claims, alleging that the transferred Negombo inmates were subjected to brutal retaliatory torture by prison guards. The committee argued that the death at Welikada Prison was the direct result of a severe beating rather than suicide and demanded an immediate end to state-sponsored vengeance against prisoners. According to police records, the inmate who died at the Karapitiya Hospital after being transferred to Boossa has been identified as 37-year-old J.K.N. Buddhika Perera, a resident of Katugoda. Meanwhile, another unidentified inmate among the 120 transferred to Angunakolapelessa died of chest pains during the admission registration process. Post-mortem examinations and judicial inquiries into these suspicious custody deaths remain ongoing.
