Sri Lankan national Sridharan Niranjan, also known as ‘Tinker’, who was deported from Dubai, was brought to the island this morning (Oct. 1) and handed over to local authorities.
Officials from the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) arrested him at the Bandaranaike International Airport in Katunayake before handing him over to the Peliyagoda Police.
Police said the 36-year-old suspect, a resident of Colombo 15, is an associate of notorious organized crime and drug trafficking leader Palani Shiran Glorian, widely known as “Kochchikade Shiran.”
According to investigations, Tinker had allegedly served as the driver of a vehicle involved in the fatal shooting of a man near the Mahawatte public cemetery in the Grandpass Police Division on October 16, 2024. He is also accused of transporting firearms used in another attack on August 19, 2025, in Peliyagoda, where one person was killed and another critically injured.
Police said a foreign travel ban had already been imposed against him, but subsequent investigations revealed he had managed to leave the country in August.
He is expected to be produced before the Colombo Chief Magistrate’s Court No. 5 in Hulftsdorp later today. Further investigations are underway by the Peliyagoda Police. (Newswire)
