Five arrested over theft of Lester’s lifetime award

Five suspects have been arrested today over theft of late Dr. Lester James Peries’s ‘Golden Peacock Medal’ lifetime award which was stolen during funeral proceedings last week, police said. 

On last Saturday, the lifetime achievement award belonging to Dr Lester James Peries that went missing during the funeral of the renowned film maker was found abandoned on an overhead rack of an airconditioned private bus plying from Kollupitya to Kaduwela. The award had apparently gone missing on Wednesday no sooner the coffin was removed from his residence at Dr Lester James Peries Mawatha,Thimbirigasyaya.

Initially it was widely reported that what had gone missing was the Golden Peacock award that Dr. Peries won in 1965. However veteran actor Ravindra Randeniya later clarified that what had been stolen was the lifetime achievement award given by the Indian government. He said that the Golden Peacock award which had been kept at the Film Corporation in Colombo 07, had gone missing about 15 years back and had not been recovered.