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Housebreak at scribe’s home leaves one dead and 4 cops hospitalised
View(s):A break-in to a journalist’s home at Lester James Peiris Mawatha (formerly Dickman’s Road) Colombo 5, by a gang of five robbers, which left one of them dead, paved the way for the arrest of the other four early yesterday. “One of them placed a sharp knife at my throat and forced me to show where the jewellery and cash were kept,” Mandana Ismail Abeywickrema, an editor of The Sunday Leader newspaper, said yesterday.
Mandana describing the pre-dawn horror
She said she was with her 10-year-old daughter Sharanya and her parents when the intruders broke into her house. “They disconnected my land telephone line and also removed the batteries of my mobile phone and threw it inside the house,” she said.
Her husband Romesh, who also works at The Sunday Leader, got alarmed when his calls to his wife were not answerd as he approached the house. He noticed that the house had been broken into when he got there and telephoned 119, the Police emergency hotline. They radioed a patrol car from the Bambalapitiya Police which was in the vicinity to rush there.
Ms Abeywickrema said, the five intruders, had been in the house for “well over two hours. When they were about to leave through the front door, the Police confronted them. “The men who had sharp knives stabbed the police officers, forcing them to shoot,” she added.
Four policemen were admitted to the Colombo National Hospital.
The intruder who was killed has been identified as 39-year-old Kadirappulige Indika Sampath Kumarasiri from Awissawella, according to Police spokesman SP Buddika Siriwardena. He said the other suspects were Kadirappulige Rohiha Chandimal Kumara, Kadirappulige Rohitha Lakskman, Udayasiri Asanka and Vithana Arachchige Shantha Kumara from Hungama, Kiribathgoda, Ambalantota and Awissawella. Two of them are believed to be army deserters and the person killed and two others are brothers.
Military spokesman Brigadier Ruwan Wanigasekara said if the suspects were army deserters they would provide all assistance to carry out investigations. The incident came amidst complaints by Ms. Abeywickrema that on Thursday a dead cat had been placed in front of her house. On Friday, she said, the tyres of her vehicle had been deflated and cut.
Senior DIG (Western Province) Anura Senanayake told the Sunday Times that the entire gang had been arrested within a short period, and all the stolen goods recovered. He said the arrested men are part of a professional gang of robbers, and several have previously served jail terms for robberies.
“This was an attempted robbery and there is no evidence to suggest that Ms. Abeywickrema was targeted because she is a journalist,” he said. He also rejected claims that there was an attempt made to abduct her. Police spokesman Buddhika Siriwardena said there had been several instances of housebreaking and theft reported in and around Lester Jame’s Peiris Mawatha area. Four houses down the road had been broken into within the past two weeks.
Residents complained of police in-action to these robberies.
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