Rajitha’s ‘white van’ driver and victim arrested over armed robbery
Posted on February 25th, 2020
By Hemantha Randunu Courtesy The Island
The Peliyagoda Crimes Division arrested six suspects including two persons who made controversial statements regarding ‘white vans’ at a press conference organised by former Health Minister Rajitha Senaratne. They were arrested for robbing an Ayurveda centre in Gampaha and making off with Rs. 4.6 million.
The police also recovered firearms used by the suspects in the robbery.
The two suspects had received 700,000 each from the robbed money, police said.
According to investigators 10 persons arrived at an Ayurveda centre at Keselbaddara in Gampaha on the pretext of seeking treatment and pulled out firearms from their bags and robbed the centre and persons working there. They held the owner of the place at gunpoint and robbed Rs. 2.1 million in cash and gold jewelry worth Rs 2.5 million.
The police investigated the robbery on the instructions of Senior DIG Western Range Deshabandu Thennakoon and Western Province (North) DIG Waruna Jayasunadara and arrested the six persons.
Police teams are tracing whereabouts of four others involved in the robbery, a senior police officer said.
The two ‘white van’ suspects were on bail at the time of the robbery.