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Interdicted cops, deserter netted after year-long robbing spree
View(s):A tip-off from alert employees at a guest house in Panadura recently resulted in the arrest of two former policemen and an Army deserter who were part of a gang that had been operating in several areas of the country posing as law enforcement officers.
The modus operandi of the gang had been to visit houses and business premises posing as CID officials claiming they are on the lookout for counterfeit notes.
In one instance the men had visited the home of an onion farmer in Wellawaya and taken possession of Rs 47,000 that the man had kept at home and said they needed to take the notes to the police station to check their authenticity. They had issued a receipt to the value of the currency and asked him to come to the police station the next day and take the money. However when the farmer went to the police station, he was told that no such police team had been dispatched to check on counterfeit notes.
In another instance, the gang had taken Rs. 40,000 from a Chinese national who runs a night club in Mount Lavinia on the same pretext and had been plotting to take cash from a casino in the same area when they were arrested.
The gang consisting of a Police Sub Inspector (SI) who is under interdiction on a bribery charge, a Police Constable (PC) who was interdicted while found to be transporting ganja in the Wellawaya area, an Army deserter who was a member of the Special Forces (SF) and three civilians were apprehended from a guest house in Panadura. The gang had taken three rooms at the guest house one day early last month. They had checked in around 12 noon and told the hotel staff they would be checking out by about 6.30 p.m.
However their appearance and the fact they had taken the rooms for only a few hours had aroused the suspicion of the staff who called the Panadura Police. A police team had been dispatched to the guest house to check on the complaint. On arrival they found that two of the rooms the men had taken were locked while they were all inside one of the rooms.
Two of the men had been wearing police uniforms and another in Army uniform while three others were in civilian clothes.
When questioned, the men claimed that they were from the Buttala Police Crimes Division and had come there on a drug related raid and were discussing its modalities. When requested, the men failed to produce their official identity cards. They were handcuffed and taken away in a police jeep along with the other three men who had forged police identity cards with them. A Mazda van belonging to the gang members were also taken away by the police.
During questioning, the gang members had admitted that they were planning to dig up treasure in the Kurunegala area. When asked why they were wearing Police and Army uniforms the men said they had done it to escape detection at check points. Police also uncovered several incidents where the gang had robbed people posing as CID officials. They had been operating for about a year in various parts of the country.
The men were remanded pending further inquiries, police said.
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