A married couple holding two bottles containing poison and an acidic solution and arguing while travelling inside a three-wheeler, threatening to take each other's lives, were taken into custody yesterday (29), according to Hirana Police.
Those arrested are a 32-year-old woman and a 37-year-old man, parents of three children residing in the Kamburugoda area of Matara. Police took the couple into custody along with the two bottles found in their possession, which allegedly contained poison and acid.
The woman abandoned her husband and children several years ago to work at a private firm in Colombo, while the husband also worked in Colombo while searching for her.
On the night of July 29, the woman travelled from Matara to Colombo by bus, while the husband secretly followed her, sitting on a rear seat of the same vehicle.
She disembarked from the bus in Panadura town and boarded a three-wheeler to travel towards Kesbewa town via Hirana road, whereupon the husband also boarded the same three-wheeler and started arguing.
During the confrontation, the husband displayed a poison bottle and threatened to force her to consume it before drinking it himself, while the woman drew an acid bottle from her bag, threatening to attack him with it and end her own life.
Prompted by the dispute, the three-wheeler driver stopped at the nearby Hirana Police Station around 11.30 p.m., dropped the couple off, and departed.
Police arrested the couple while they continued to argue at the station.
Hirana Police are conducting further investigations into the incident.