The person who was arrested in connection with the incident of stealing the vehicle of the Kuliyapitiya Additional Magistrate Sampath Ariyasena at Piliyandala is a suspect wanted for several other crimes committed by him in different parts of the country, police said.
According to the police, the suspect, 27-year-old Shaveen Sothiraja was arrested by the Police Divisional Crimes Investigation Unit of Mt. Lavinia on Monday (13) at Oliyamulla, Wattala. Police had found the stolen car in Wattala. Investigations conducted by the police have revealed that the arrested is the suspect who had robbed an air rifle from a shop in Bambalapitiya after attacking a sales assistant of the shop with a sharp object on January 24.
In addition, it has been revealed that the suspect had committed several other robberies and all these crimes have been committed by him without the support of any other partner. In order to commit these crimes, he had travelled to the target locations by three-wheelers, police said. When the police inspected the temporary residence of the suspect located in Uduwana, Homagama, police recovered two air rifles, four knives including a Rambo knife, a parcel of chilli powder and also three air rifle cylinders. One of the two rifles recovered is worth Rs.150, 000 and it is the one robbed from the shop of Bambalapitiya, police said.
Police are yet to find how the suspect has spent the money stolen in various crimes committed by him.