Rs. 70m heist - sleuths grill security officers

by Jayampathy JAYASINGHE

The two security officers who escorted the van transporting cash to the ATM machines at Negombo, Kelaniya and Wattala are being grilled by the Detectives of the Colombo Crime Division (CCD) as to why they failed to open fire at the robbers when they were asked to surrender their weapons and cartridges, police sources told the Sunday Observer.

CCD sleuths are questioning the two security officers as to why the cartridges had been in their trouser pockets instead of being loaded in their shotguns while escorting the van which was laden with cash. The CCD and the Peliyagoda police have launched a joint investigation on the Rs. 70 million heist by five robbers brandishing a T-56 weapon on Friday at Wanawasala in the Wattala area.

Police sources said that they were optimistic of solving one of the biggest heists in the country in recent times where robbers got away with Rs. 70 million after threatening to shoot the two security officers, the driver and two employees of a private bank transporting cash to the ATMs in Negombo, Kelaniya and the Wattala areas.

Of the five robbers, two were clad in uniforms similar to these worn by policemen and Civil Defence Force officers. A robber armed with a T-56 weapon had intercepted the van at a checkpoint set up by them at Wanawasala, Wattala around 1 a.m. on Friday.

The driver of the van stopped his vehicle when signalled to do so at the checkpoint by a robber who posed off as a policeman. The five robbers who surrounded the van ordered them to disembark from the vehicle, had took charge of the two shotguns and cartridges from the security officers. Thereafter the robbers gagged them by pasting plasters on their mouths and escorted the vehicle to a lonely spot about one kilometre away where they loaded the cash in to a bag and rode off on two motorcycles. Police have also launched a manhunt to arrest the five wanted men.