Four persons – two ex-convicts posing as CID officers and two genuine police constables – have been arrested in connection with a series of robberies of train passengers heading to the North.
For the past eight years, the gang had been systematically robbing Tamil persons travelling on trains bound for Vavuniya. It is believed that the passengers, mostly Tamils, believed they were the victims of unscrupulous police officers, and were therefore reluctant to talk to the police.
 |
| A fake identity card used by one of the suspects. Pic by Saman Kariyawasam |
The gang members had used fake identity cards to intimidate passengers, force them to get off the train, and then relieve them of their valuables.
“Their modus operandi was simple,” Chief Inspector Nishantha Ratnapala, Officer in Charge at the Ragama Police Station, told the Sunday Times.
“They would board a train at the Fort Railway Station, identify a potential target, and strike up a conversation. The target could be a man, a couple, or a family. “They would then produce identity cards and say they were from the CID, and that they needed to question the passengers. They would tell the victims to follow them.”
Gang members and victims would get off at the next station, and valuables, including jewellery, cash and mobile phones, would be handed over. A receipt would be issued for the confiscated articles, and the victims would be told to call at the CID headquarters on a certain date and speak to a certain CID officer to reclaim their valuables.
IP Ratnapala said the police started to make investigations after receiving complaints from two passengers who had handed over to police officers on trains jewellery worth Rs 150,000 and Rs. 200,000.
The police started their investigations by inquiring at prisons about persons who had been jailed for robbing passengers on trains. Two such persons were identified – both had been jailed for five years and both had been released after completing their jail terms. The police tracked down the two ex-convicts and started to follow their movements.
 |
| Chief Inspector Nishantha
Ratnapala |
It turned out that both men had gone back to their old criminal habits, and were again robbing passengers on trains, and that they had enlisted the help of two genuine police officers.
Chief Inspector Ratnapala told the Sunday Times that all four men have been arrested. He said the police are appealing to other victims of the fake CID officers to come forward and lodge their complaints.
The police also found that the suspects had bank accounts of between Rs. 500,000 and Rs. 600,000. The police are continuing their efforts to recover the stolen jewellery. Some of the jewellery has been recovered from shops in Sea Street, Pettah.
Meanwhile, the Army is assisting the police by keeping an eye out for any suspicious activity on trains bound for the North and the East. |
E-mail
