Sunday Crime:

For a few rupees more

by Jayampathy Jayasinghe

Business had always been good at the Neptune Communication Centre located at Slave Island Colombo 2. Being situated in a convenient place in the heart of Slave Island, the centre was well patronised by customers including armed services personnel and the police.

Generally the Neptune communication centre is kept open till late night, for the benefit of customers. The place is thronged with people who live around the Slave Island area. They usually call over at the centre to phone their kith and kin who are employed in Middle Eastern countries. Many visit the communication centre in the evenings to contact their relatives abroad. They know that this is the best time to catch them after work. Neptune was a hive of activity on July 12th with several persons calling there from morning.

Taken aback

Around 8.30 p.m. or so a strange thing happened. Two men armed with pistols stormed in to the communication centre and pointed their weapons at the proprietor. The proprietor was taken aback as everybody in the neighbourhood seemed to know him so well and nobody had ever attempted to rob him all these years. But from the faces of the robbers the proprietor knew at once that they were not men from the area.

He was quite sure that he had not seen them before. The two robbers demanded cash from the proprietor and threatened to shoot everybody present if he does not comply with this order.

There were three employees of the communication centre present when the robbers threatened to shoot them down if cash was not given to them. The few customers who had gathered that day at the communication centre fled fearing bodily harm to them. Fearing for his own life and the lives of his employees, the proprietor opened his drawer and handed over cash of Rs. 135,000 to the robbers.

Not satisfied with the money the robbers also robbed three cellular mobile phones of the proprietor. They grabbed the money from the proprietor and then made a quick exit from the place. Thereafter no one had seen them getting away with the loot.

Following the daring robbery the proprietor lodged a complaint at the Slave Island Police. The Slave Island police visited the scene and recorded the statements of some persons. But thereafter the matter came to a grinding halt. They were not able to make any headway with the investigation. In short they could not apprehend the robbers.

Disgusted with the work of the area police, the proprietor of the Communication Centre proceeded to the Colombo Crime Division (CCD) and met it's Director, Senior Supdt. of Police, Sarath Lugoda who advised him to lodge a complaint with them.

Thereafter SSP Lugoda detailed a team of policemen who had sufficient experience in solving such cases. After painstaking detective work, the detectives arrested an army deserter in the Borella area and recovered two stolen cellular mobile phones along with two SIM cards. The detectives questioned him and learnt that he was living in a rented out room at Wattala. Investigations are being made by the CCD to find out whether he was involved in other serious crimes as well.

Airforce deserter

Meanwhile, detectives learnt that the other robber was an airforce deserter who was arrested subsequently by the Gampaha police in connection with a robbery committed at the Kiribathgoda area.

The airforce deserter has been remanded following his arrest.

However, the biggest surprise came to the detectives when they unmasked the third man involved in the robbery. The third man was none other than a policeman attached to an important security division in the police.

The policeman from Ja-ela was to be arrested in connection with the robbery. It was learnt that he had collaborated with the robbers by providing them with vital information. Meanwhile the stolen cash is believed to have been busted up by the robbers. Further inquiries are being conducted under the supervision of Director, CCD Sath Lugoda.