Rugby player’s death was not accidental: Police

From Ada Derana

An inquest into the mysterious death of former national rugby player Wasim Thajudeen has been initiated following the emergence of new information with respect to the case in the recent past, Police Spokesperson SSP Ajith Rohana said.

The Government Analyst’s (GA) Department investigation, which moved at snail’s pace due to unknown reasons on this case, was concluded on 12 February, Ada Derana learns.

SSP Rohana added that the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) is now investigating the case upon a directive made by the IGP since last afternoon.

“Several scientific evidences of the GA report and the Judicial Medical Officer’s (JMO) report elaborate that this was not an ‘accidental death’. The secondary inquiries were based on the reports of GA and JMO” said Rohana.

A senior police officer told Ada Derana that Thajudeen had had a dispute with a powerful person over a girl sometime before his mysterious death and the investigators will draw attention to this as well. Initially, the police predicted that Thajudeen had been driving to the airport when his car crashed into a wall killing him on the spot in Kirullapone on 17 May 2012.

Thajudeen represented S Thomas’ College, Mount Lavinia from 2001 to 2003. He then turned out for Havelock’s SC during the 2005 season where he played in the position of wing three quarter. He was voted the Most Popular Ruggerite of the Year at the Caltex Observer Touchdown Rugby Quiz award ceremony in 2009.