The police dog with a mission:

Karat is no more

By Manjula FERNANDO

‘Karat’ could not hide its excitement. As soon as its handler put on its ‘special track kit’ the dog was all set and ready to ‘shoot’ on his next mission.

As far as duty was concerned, for Karat, there was nothing called ‘too early or too late’. You would always see him in the ‘right mood’ to hunt down anything or anyone any time of the day. Such was his dedication and loyalty to his master.

The case before Karat this time, according to Police crime specialists at the Ampara divison, had been highly challenging. In Rathugala, a remote village in Inginiyagala, an infant was burnt to death. The police needed a sniffer dog to track down the murderer. Karat, a Doberman Pinscher, was duly called to the task.

The investigators after painstaking search had found only a half burnt matchstick on the crime scene. That was the only piece of physical evidence unearthed which could have linked the murderer to the crime. The crime investigators thought the prospects of hunting down the killer was highly remote. But PC Rasika Prabhath, Karat’s handler was more than optimistic. He had worked with the Dog long enough to know its special traits.

Rathugala is inhibited by Vedda community and crimes in this small pocket was not a common occurrence. The closely knit community was devastated and shocked by the death of the infant and the sickening manner it was committed. The elderly males in the clan were ready to wage war.

The police was desperate to find the killer as well as the motive behind the killing. Is a psychopath on the loose and if so was this his first human prey? There were many questions to be answered. The investigators approached PC Rasika.

The new police dog that has taken the place of Karat

PC Rasika Prabath with Karat

Karat at the time served with the Ampara Police Crime Division along with several other Police sniffer dogs. But this time it was his mission alone. The sniffer dog was ushered to the murder scene, to the house where the child’s charred body was found in a burnt cloth sling where his mother earlier rocked him to sleep.

PC Rasika made it trod about for a few minutes in a familiarisation exercise and gave him to sniff the only palpable piece of evidence - the burnt matchstick. Soon after, Karat dashed out as if in a trance. PC Rasika was certain the dog had got the scent of the killer.

The Doberman dashed in a flash on a foot path in a jungle terrain and stood still staring at a house situated about 600 metres off the crime scene. The investigating officers questioned the inhabitants of the house. After a while the offender came forth with the story - a confession.

One of the young men in this house had tried to befriend the young sister of the dead child’s father. When she refused his offer, he tried various tactics. On the day of the incident, he went to the particular house with a group of friends. In an attempt to get the girl out they have set fire to the curtain through an open window, using a ‘matchstick’, not knowing a child was sound asleep in a cloth sling nearby. The sling caught fire and the child’s cries had brought the mother and the sister to the scene. The mother who tried to save the child also suffered injuries. The case was solved.

It was meant to be one of the golden pages in Karat’s life. Soon the canine grew up to solve many mysterious cases in the police history, the ones human officers were unable to break.

Karat - a Doberman Pinscher arrived in Sri Lanka on May 30, 2005 from Germany - from the prestigious kennels of the German Police Department as a two year old puppy, along with 30 others. Dobermans a cross-bred were developed in Germany in the late 1800s. They were developed with the cross-breed of Rottweilers, Terriers and German Pinschers. With a sleek coat, athletic build and highly intelligent and energetic characteristics, they are keenly sought after for police and military work.

PC Rasika his handler spent seven whole months at the Police Kennel Headquarters in Kandy training the puppy several hours a day from dawn to noon.

“The dog was not trained at the time it was brought here. They had only given him a name - Karat (pronounced Kaarat).”

With the meaning being pure gold, Karat is a popular pet name for dogs and cats alike in Germany. Karat though his life span was comparatively short, proved that he was worth more than a million sovereign us of gold.

He helped solve most difficult cases the police Department had to solve - a total of eight murder cases, two ransom cases and 24 burglaries from his first assignment, that was to find robbers who broke into Galagedara temple on June 1, 2006. It was a mission accomplished.

Karat bid adieu to his trainer and the police service recently succumbing to an illness that crippled the otherwise energetic canine. He gradually lost his mobility.

“It was an illness affecting its bones, “His death would be hard to replace, PC Rasika who accompanied Karat on its numerous missions said.

Karat was instrumental in solving the famous murder and ransom case in Batticaloa involving a seven-year-old child.

“When I was approached by the crime investigators, they had the child’s white school uniform, she was wearing at the time of the kidnapping. It was found in a cemetery. The body of the child was found in a well. Our mission was to help find the murderers.”

Karat’s specialty was his ability to find criminals from the smell of their sweat. Karat was taken to where the dress was found around 8 am in the morning. As soon as he sniffed the dusty white uniform he started to follow a trail. His stop was at a three-wheeler parked half a kilometre away. The same trail was repeated three times by Karat.

“I made him rest for an hour and gave him the dress to sniff again and he made the same path to the three-wheel park not just once but three times,” said PC Rasika.

The investigators began questioning the three-wheel drivers. The murder was uncovered. The girl was kidnapped in a three-wheeler frequenting the park. The man who kidnapped the girl was later found to be a person who closely associated with the victim’s family. When she identified the man he had killed the child out of fear. The dog helped the police crack the case. For PC Rasika his best case was not an earth shattering one though. Karat showed his traits as a super sniffer dog when it was called over to find some missing water pumps worth some several hundred thousand rupees. It took place in Katugastota in 2007, about a year after the dog was commissioned for duty.

The investigators found nothing to give Karat, only a foot print on a grassy patch. Karat sniffed the footprint and without a moment of hesitation began a trail. He stopped near a house which was situated off 800m to where the goods were stolen. On inspection the police found the stolen water pumps inside a locked room.

Among many others Karat had tracked down criminals once from the scent in a wire bracelet popularly worn by rogues and also knives left behind at the scene by the criminals. He did his best when there was a mission to be accomplished.

Rasika says Karat was a very affectionate canine. “He demands a lot of attention from me and expects me to take him if I ever dress up to go somewhere.”

“I noticed about a week before his death that Karat was not as energetic as he used to be. Later he showed difficulty in walking. We treated him at the Ampara veterinary clinic but there the facilities to check his blood, etc was not available. Therefore he was transferred to Kandy, a few days later where he died.”

Karat was buried with full police honours was attended by senior police officials.

Director Police Kennel Division SSP Mahinda Ekanayake and Deputy Director ASP Sisira Weerakone assisted us with relevant information.