News
Gampola bank ATM raid key player nabbed
View(s):By Chris Kamalendran
A suspect, who masterminded 27 robberies including that of jewellery shops, pawning centres, and rural banks, has been arrested after he had led a team to remove an ATM machine from a private bank in Gampola.
The breakthrough came less than a month after tracking telephone calls between the suspects and a driver of a vehicle they had hired.
Seven suspects including the mastermind were arrested for the robbery of Rs 7.6 million from the ATM machine. They have been detained until tomorrow.
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- The suspects had bought a washing machine (above) and motorbike (below) with the money from the ATM machine
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- Some of the recovered money stolen from the ATM machine
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- The ATM machine that was removed
The gang had used a pistol to subdue the security guard at the bank, before removing the ATM machine. The weapon had been reported missing following an attack on the home of lawmaker Ali Sabry Raheem from the Puttalam district, on May 9, last year. He had filed a complaint.
Four of the gang members are residents of Puttalam and are from the same family, while three others are from Galaha, Deltota area.
Immediately before the ATM machine robbery, the suspects had broken into a bank at Galaha, and also robbed two jewellery shops in the area.
This is one of a string of ATM robberies in recent months.
Most recently, in Kurunegala, an ATM machine was robbed and Rs 10 million was removed. The suspect, who was arrested in the Bingiriya area, is a resident of Eppawala and had pretended to be a maintenance worker. He was allegedly involved in three other ATM machine robberies including one in Minneriya in front of an army camp.
In the southern province, several ATM machines have been robbed.
Meanwhile, donation collection boxes of Hindu temples in Colombo have also been stolen. Among them is a robbery reported at Sri Subramaniam Swamy temple at Kompannaya Veediya.
(Additional reporting and
pix by Suranga Rajanayake)
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