Eraj Ravindra Fernando, a former Mayor of the Hambantota Municipal Council, was found dead at a Colombo apartment on Wednesday morning, police said. Preliminary inquiries indicate he died by suicide.

Sri Lanka Police have deployed two investigative teams, working under the supervision of the Senior Superintendent of Police in charge of the Colombo South Division, to establish the circumstances of the death.

According to NewsFirst, the body was found inside an eighth-floor apartment belonging to Fernando, and he is suspected to have died after hanging himself from a door using a necktie. Police said another person had been staying at the apartment but had travelled to Hambantota the previous day. That individual tried to reach Fernando by telephone on Wednesday morning and, receiving no answer, called a woman engaged in cleaning work at the apartment and asked her to check the residence. The body was discovered during that inspection.

The outlets differ on where the apartment is. Ada Derana placed it in Bambalapitiya, while NewsFirst and Hiru News both located it in Thimbirigasyaya — adjacent Colombo localities. The reported age also differs: Ada Derana and Hiru News gave Fernando’s age as 57, while NewsFirst reported he was 61.

Fernando contested under the United People’s Freedom Alliance and was elected Mayor of the Hambantota Municipal Council in 2014, Ada Derana reported. He was re-elected to the post in 2018 with the backing of the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna.

Police said investigations are continuing. No outlet reported whether a post-mortem has been scheduled or which magistrate’s court will take up the inquiry.

Update, September 3: funeral set for Saturday

Fernando’s funeral will be held on Saturday, Ada Derana reported, describing him as having died under suspicious circumstances. The report did not give the venue, the time, or say whether the body had been released to the family.

Ada Derana repeated its own earlier account of the death on both points where the outlets diverged the previous day: it again placed the apartment in Bambalapitiya and again gave his age as 57. NewsFirst had located the apartment in Thimbirigasyaya and reported his age as 61. Neither of those discrepancies has been addressed by any outlet, and no correction has been published on either side.

Ada Derana added that the body was found hanging inside the flat and that the death is suspected to be a suicide, consistent with what police said on Wednesday.

The report carries no new information on the investigation. It does not say whether a post-mortem has been held or scheduled, whether an inquest has been opened, or which magistrate’s court is handling the inquiry — the same gaps as on the day of the death. Ada Derana’s article page carries the outlet’s machine-generated summary above the report, and the funeral date is the only fact in it that had not been published previously.

Update, September 3: an open verdict at the post-mortem, and samples sent to the Government Analyst

The post-mortem examination was carried out on Thursday by the Judicial Medical Officer of Colombo, and an open verdict has been returned, NewsFirst reported.

The Judicial Medical Officer ordered that samples from the body be forwarded to the Government Analyst for further investigation and testing.

That answers the question left open since the day of the death — whether a post-mortem had been held — and it does so in a way that qualifies the account police gave on Wednesday. An open verdict means the medical examination did not establish a cause of death. Police had said preliminary inquiries indicated Fernando died by suicide; the post-mortem has not confirmed that, and the referral to the Government Analyst means toxicology or other laboratory work is outstanding.

NewsFirst repeated the police account of how the body was found: on the eighth floor of the apartment complex, hanging by a necktie attached to a door near one of the rooms, discovered after the person who had been staying with him travelled to Hambantota, could not reach him by telephone on Wednesday morning, and asked a woman working as a cleaner at the apartment to check.

Neither outlet has moved on the two discrepancies

NewsFirst again placed the apartment in Thimbirigasyaya and again gave Fernando’s age as 61. Ada Derana has twice placed it in Bambalapitiya and twice given his age as 57.

Each outlet has now restated its own version on both fields across two days without acknowledging the other. No correction has been published on either side, and no third account has settled either point.

Still unreported

No outlet has said when the Government Analyst’s results are expected, whether an inquest has been opened, or which magistrate’s court is handling the inquiry. None reports what the samples are being tested for, or whether the open verdict changes the direction of the police investigation. The funeral remains set for Saturday, with no venue or time published.

Update, September 3: a fourth outlet corroborates the open verdict — and sides with NewsFirst on both disputed fields

Daily Mirror has published its own report on the post-mortem, independently confirming the substance of the NewsFirst account: an open verdict was returned after the examination, carried out on Thursday by the Judicial Medical Officer of Colombo, who ordered that samples taken from the body be sent to the Government Analyst for further investigation and testing, Daily Mirror reported under the headline “Mystery deepens over Eraj Fernando’s death”.

On the two contested fields, Daily Mirror follows NewsFirst on both. It gives Fernando’s age as 61 and places the apartment in Thimbirigasyaya.

That does not settle them equally. On location the count is now three to one — NewsFirst, Hiru News and Daily Mirror against Ada Derana — which is as close to resolved as the reporting has come. On age it produces a two-two split: Ada Derana and Hiru News say 57, NewsFirst and Daily Mirror say 61. A fourth outlet has therefore hardened one discrepancy into a tie rather than breaking it. No outlet has published a correction or acknowledged the divergence on either field.

Daily Mirror otherwise repeats the police account already reported here: the body was found on the eighth floor of the residential complex, hanging by a necktie attached to a door near one of the rooms; the person who had been staying at the apartment had travelled to Hambantota the previous day, could not reach Fernando by telephone the following morning, and asked a woman working as a cleaner to check on him.

The report adds nothing on the questions still outstanding — when the Government Analyst’s results are due, what the samples are being tested for, whether an inquest has been opened, or which magistrate’s court is handling the inquiry.

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Sources