Six held in Wellawatte bank robbery

by Jayampathy JAYASINGHE

The daring bank robbery staged at Wellawatte a fortnight ago has been solved with the arrest of six suspects.

The chauffeur of a director of a private Television Network has also been arrested in this connection.

The suspects including an ex army captain and an employee of the Union Bank were arrested following the robbery of the Union Bank at Wellawatte where the robbers got away with Rs. 13 million and the bank Manager's car, police sources told the Sunday observer. Colombo Crime Division sleuths who arrested the six suspects in the Kundasale, Malabe, Talangama and Colombo areas recovered Rs. 101 million in cash in the possession of the suspects.

DIG Crimes and Organised Crimes, Anura Senanayake directed the Colombo Crime Division (CCD) to probe further into the robbery to ascertain whether other employees of the bank were linked to the robbery. Police sources said an Ex army captain, who is a son of a retired DIG and a man from Kundasale had shared the Rs. 6 million loot among them. After staging the robbery both suspects had checked into a five star hotel down south that night. On the following day the two suspects had again checked into a five star hotel in Colombo where they divided the loot among the other robbers. It was revealed that an employee of the same bank in a suburban town had photographed the interior of the bank at Wellawatte and handed over the photographs to the robbers.

Police said it was a daring bank robbery staged even before the bank opened for business. The robbers got way with Rs. 13 million in cash after tying its employees.

The two security officers at the Wellawatte bank had allowed the two robbers who posed off as repair men to enter the premises following a call received from the bank's headquarters. The men were to repair a faulty Automated Teller Machine (ATM) around 7.30.a.m.

The repairmen had pulled out a pistol and threatened to shoot the security officers and tied them up. They told them to remain silent and waited until the other employees arrived. Later they tied all the employees and waited for the arrival of the manager. When he arrived they threatened to shoot him and ordered him to open the bank's safe. The robbers then emptied the large currency notes into a sack and drove off in the manager's car. The car was later found abandoned at Rudra Mawatha in Wellawatte.

SSP Ranjith Gunesekera, the Media Spokesman said the robbers had not taken the gold and jewellery from its vault.

Senior DIG Western Province, Nimal Mediweka instructed DIG Crimes and Organised Crimes, Anura Senanayake to follow up the case.