The wife and child of underworld figure ‘Backhoe Saman’, who was recently arrested in Indonesia, were taken into custody by Sri Lanka’s Criminal Investigation Department (CID) upon their arrival at Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) yesterday (29).

The duo had been deported from Indonesia and arrived in Sri Lanka at around 5:50 p.m. on SriLankan Airlines flight UL-365 from Jakarta.

The CID Airport Unit immediately detained them and, after recording preliminary statements, handed them over to the CID headquarters in Colombo for further investigations.

Earlier, Indonesian authorities arrested Kehelbaddara Padme—a key associate of Backhoe Saman—along with several members of an organized criminal syndicate in Jakarta.

During that raid, Backhoe Saman’s wife and small child were also taken into custody.

However, as no serious criminal charges were filed against the woman, Indonesian authorities decided to deport her and the child to Sri Lanka.