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| Sunday, 2 October 2005 |
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Phony cop a daring robber, cohorts nabbed Crime Sunday by Jayampathy Jayasinghe It was a day of mourning for the wife and the family of late Dr. Anton Jayasuriya. They had all gathered at the General Cemetery, Borella to attend his burial, last April. Large crowds gathered to pay homage to the doctor who was known worldwide for his skills in Acupuncture. It is a known fact that Dr. Jayasuriya rendered a yeoman service to community, especially the poor by treating them free of charge at his residence at Wellawatte. While the funeral service was going on at the cemetery something dastardly and unbelievable happened at his residence at Wellawatte. Five young men dressed in police uniforms arrived outside his residence in a vehicle. They parked the vehicle and waited for some time. Then two men got down from the vehicle and went straight into his residence, while three men remained in the car. The few relatives and friends who remained in the house looked helpless as the men were dressed as policemen. They were rather hesitant to question the policemen about their visit to the house and remained silent. Several witnesses later told police that the leader of the gang was dressed as a Police Sub-Inspector while the other was dressed in a police Constable's uniform. The Sub Inspector with a pistol in his hand threatened the inmates and removed their personnel belongings such as gold bangles, earrings and cellular phones, etc. The robbers then went into rooms and having ransacked the cupboards and drawers had removed several documents including credit cards etc. The inmates looked in horror as the robber was armed with a pistol. Meanwhile, the doctor's wife along with her relatives returned home around 8.p.m. after attending her husbands funeral only to be confronted by the robbers. By this time, the three men who remained in the vehicle also joined the other two robbers and robbed gold jewellery, cellular mobile phones, credit cards, wrist watches etc from the doctor's wife, the relatives and their coterie of friends. The robbers threatened to shoot them if they did not follow instructions. According to police, the robbed articles were worth several hundred thousand rupees. Fearing something worse would happen to them the panic stricken relatives did not resist the robbers. The robbers having collected valuable jewellery, then drove off in the BMW car and the Dolphin van that belonged to the late doctor Jayasuriya. The robbery staged on the day of the funeral drew protests not only from his relatives but the neighbourhood and the community at large. After all the doctor was a beloved man because of his contribution towards society in several ways. Wellawatte police investigated the robbery initially but the inquiry was subsequently taken over by the Colombo Crime Division (CCD) headed by its Director, (SSP) Sarath Lugoda. A couple of months passed by with no results. What the CCD needed was a vital clue to penetrate a ring of ruthless criminals for daring hold ups and robberies of luxury vehicles from the Western province. Then came the break, the detectives were waiting for. They learnt the stolen BMW car was sighted in the Kandy district through their network of informants. SSP Lugoda despatched a team of detectives to Alawathugoda in Matale area. Meanwhile, the robbers who came to know the police was on their trail abandoned the stolen BMW car on a roadside. The police team ultimately found the vehicle. Meanwhile, the detectives learnt that the stolen Dolphin vehicle was taken to uncleared areas in Killinochchi. Later on a tip off CCD officers arrested the main suspect, a man from Horowpathana. It was he who posed off as a Sub-Inspector of Police and robbed the relatives of late Dr. Jayasuriya along with four other suspects. Police learnt soon that of the four suspects, two were in remand custody while the other two were absconding. The man from Horowpathana had later confessed that they committed 13 robberies in areas such as Borella, Welliweriya, Hanwella, Wellawatte, Colpetty, Kohuwala, Wattegama, Dematagoda, Grandpass, and Chilaw. The jewellery robbed from these places were worth more than Rs. 2 million. The bulk of the gold jewellery had been pawned at known pawn shops in Colombo. The same gang had also robbed the Saliya Batik shop at Belummahara and removed foreign currency including US Dollar notes, Sterling Pound notes, Euros, to the value of more than Rs. 500,000 by threatening the inmates. Some where in January this year the same gang robbed a house in Kalubovila and removed jewellery worth more than Rs, 200,000. Senior Supdt. of Police, Sarath Lugoda said jewellery worth more than Rs 200,000 had been recovered by the police from various pawn shops in the country. Meanwhile, in an another twist of events, detectives from Colombo Crime Division (CCD) arrested the gang that entered the house of the well known physician Dr. H. S. H. Samarasinghe at Ernest De Silva Mawatha, Colombo 7, a few months back and robbed his Rolex wrist watch worth Rs 1.8 million at gun point. The robbers assaulted him on his head with the butt of a revolver when he protested. The doctor sustained bleeding injuries on his head and had to seek treatment elsewhere. It happened after the doctor finished attending to some patients that evening and was about to close the door when a two member gang armed with a pistol forcibly entered his home. The robbers having threatened to shoot him robbed his priceless Rolex watch and some gold jewellery that belonged to his wife. SSP Lugoda and his team of officers worked tirelessly to track down the robbers as it was quite an unusual robbery reported from a cosmopolitan neighbourhood. About two months later the CCD officials were tipped off that five
persons were trying to dispose of a genuine Rolex watch at the Colombo
Hilton premises. An undercover officer who posed off as a buyer finally
helped CCD officers to arrest the gang of five persons. |
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