All for the love of gold

Gang robs jewellery company:

The months of June and July are the two months in the calender where most couples tie their knots as they consider it as a lucky period to enter into holy matrimony bringing them eternal happiness.

This is also a season where goldsmiths and craftsmen are inundated with orders from customers to churn out wedding jewellery like rings, earrings, necklaces and pendants for the occasion. The gold smiths too work hard during this period to make extra money and to meet the demands of customers.

One such company that undertook the manufacture of gold jewellery items was located at Furgueson road at Dematagoda where a number of skilled goldsmiths and craftsman were employed. The industry had a high reputation among well known jewellers at Sea Street Kotahena. The Sea street itself had a reputation as being the cradle of Sri Lankan jewellery mart.

Last month the jewellery manufacturing company at Dematagoda was inundated with orders from sea street jewellers to supply them with manufactured items of gold jewellery.

As a customary practice the jewellers at Sea street supplied the company with gold bars worth millions of rupees to expedite their orders. They did so to meet the dead lines set by their customers.

The proprietor of the company kept the precious gold bars along with other manufactured items under lock and key inside an iron safe at his company. He always kept the key of the iron safe in his possession. Due to the heavy nature of work, the employees usually worked tirelessly till 9 p.m. every evening.

Eight armed men

It was on July 12 2007 when the workers were about to end their days arduous work at about 8 p.m. when some strange and unbelievable thing happened. Eight persons dressed in combat style, entered the premises that night. There were two persons clad in army uniforms while another person was in a police uniform. The three men carried firearms with them. The two army men were carrying T-56 assault rifles while the policeman had a 380 revolver in his hand. The other five persons who accompanied them were clad in civil clothes.

The armed men said they wanted to question the employees regarding their links with the LTTE and forced them into a secluded room inside the company. There were 22 employees altogether.

While they were being questioned some employees were assaulted by the eight member gang. In the meantime some one sensing trouble inside the company telephoned the proprietor about what was going on. Alarmed by the telephone call the proprietor at once rushed to his company accompanied by another person. At the entrance to his company he saw a Dolphin van parked outside on the road.

No sooner the proprietor entered the company he was taken hostage by the armed gang who threatened to shoot him and ordered him to open the safe that contained gold bars and other gold jewellery items. Fearing for his life he opened the safe while the robbers leaped forward and emptied the gold bars and other jewellery items into a bag.

Thereafter they locked the proprietor and the rest of the employees inside a room and escaped with the loot. Later that night the proprietor lodged a complaint at the Dematagoda police station regarding the robbery of gold bars and jewellery items valued at Rs. 14.6 million rupees.

However as the Dematagoda police could not trace the suspects, DIG Colombo Range, Rohan Abeywardena entrusted the case to the Director, Colombo Crime Division, (CCD) SSP Sarath Lugoda.

Four arrested

Last week on a tip off, the Colombo Crime Division (CCD) sleuths under the supervision of Director Lugoda fanned across the country and arrested four leading members of the gang who actively had participated in the robbery of the Dematagoda jewellery company.

The four robbers had belonged to a notorious gang in Colombo. They were arrested from areas like Dambulla, Passara, Pamunugama and Grandpas. Meanwhile Police recovered two Dolphin vans used in the robbery from the Pamunugama area with cash of Rs. 25,000.

The most frightening scenario however was that one gang member, had admitted to the killing of Inspector Nimal Douglas and his wife at Athurugiriya last year while they were on their way to Colombo in a van.

The gang member had worked for the drug king pin, named Gunesekaram' of Kimbula-Ela, Modera. It was also revealed that the suicide bomber who attempted to assassinate President Chandrika Kumaratunga Bandaranike at the Town Hall a few years back was harboured by Kimbula-ela Gunasekaram who had fled to India. Meanwhile his friend Kota Gamini too have been arrested in India by the Indian police in connection with a heroin trafficking case.

It was also revealed that one gang member who participated in the robbery was attached to a army unit in Colombo. However when the CCD sleuths went to arrest him he had escaped from the army unit in Colombo. The CCD sleuths are confident that the rest of the gang would be arrested in due course.

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