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Public cooperation instrumental in solving organised crimes: Gampaha SSP
View(s):Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Gampaha, Vjitha Komasaru last week received an anonymous telephone call. The caller hurriedly said that he had information about one of the robbers in the Rs 2.3 million heist from a petrol shed on Monday.
The caller provided accurate information about the suspect’s location. The police immediately responded and arrested the suspect hiding in a house in Avissawella. He was in possession of Rs 380,000.
On the same day, two more suspects were arrested from Panadura, and two vehicles used in the getaway from the petrol shed in Thihariya, were recovered. One more suspect is evading arrest. It was shortly after lunch time on Monday, when the petrol shed owner was about to leave to the bank to deposit the collection, which was high at this fuel station as it was situated along a main road.
Four men with masked faces, and one of them armed with a T.56 weapon, stormed the petrol shed and demanded the collection. One of the employees pulled out the money he had with him and handed it over to the robbers. The rest of the money was on top of a shelf from where it was removed.
Within a short time the robbers got away. Soon after the robbery, the police arrived and were immediately suspicious as to how the robbers knew that one of the attendants had part of the money. Their suspicions were well founded when they later found that the brother-in-law of this particular worker was the mastermind behind the robbery.
Investigations revealed that the same gang had been responsible for another robbery using the same vehicle used for this crime.
This robbery came less than a week after Rs 18 million was robbed from a leading finance company in the Gampaha district.
However, despite CCTV footage of the five suspects involved in the robbery, all of them are still free, but two others involved in the robbery have been taken into custody.
The two persons arrested are the driver of escape van and the person who rented out the vehicle. Organised crimes are on the increase with similar robberies being reported in the recent past. SSP Komasaru told the Sunday Times that the breakthrough in the Thihariya robbery came due to public support, and they expect similar public cooperation to crack the second case.
“It is with inside information that such robberies are carried out,” he added. He said that, in both cases, the robbers had been involved in previous robberies and have served jail sentences . Police spokesman SP Buddhika Siriwardena told the Sunday Times that in one of the cases, army deserters were involved.
“The support extended by the media has been useful to get information about the suspects. Circulating the video footage helped us attract public response to help identify the suspects,” he said.
“We are confident that we will solve the cases,” he said.
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