A suspect is reported to have committed suicide while in police custody. Sunil Ratnayake (44), a father of two, had consumed poison while being held in a cell at the Mount Lavinia police station, after his wife complained that he had had come home drunk and harassed her.

Police said they had placed him in a cell to cool off. It was when other inmates shouted that he was vomiting, they decided to rush him to the Kalubowila Teaching hospital, where he died the following morning.

Preliminary investigations revealed that the death was caused by consuming poison.

Mount Lavinia police is conducting further investigations.