A group of officers of the Walasmulla Police arrested an Officer in Charge of an intelligence unit, a Police Constable engaged in duty on the Southern Expressway and a civilian who tried to fraudulently obtain a consignment of gold goods pawned at a jewellery store in Walasmulla, claiming that they were stolen goods.
The Police Constable who made a telephone call to the owner of the jewellery shop in Walasmulla town in November 2022, had said that a person whom he knew was bringing some gold items and that he should buy the gold items as he was a trustworthy person.
Accordingly, Ariyapala, a resident of Walasmulla, along with a resident of Middeniya, Navi Ruwan, had come to the jewellery store with some gold items weighing 34 grams and had mentioned the Police Constable’s name.
Accordingly, the owner of the jewellery store had inspected these gold items and had bought them for Rs.155,000.
Three months after the transaction, the person named Ariyapala had met the owner of the jewellery store and had told him that the gold items he sold that day were ones stolen by Navy Ruwan and the suspects involved in the theft have been arrested by Embilipitiya Police. He had asked the shop owner to return the gold items.
In the meantime, the Police Constable also had called the owner of the jewellery shop and mentioned that the gold items will have to be returned as they are stolen ones and he was not aware of such a thing at first.
Meanwhile, on Sunday (19) a plainclothes Police officer had come to the shop andt he wanted to record a statement regarding the gold items sold by the person in Walasmulla.
He had then taken the owner of the jewellery store to the top floor of the building where the jewelry store is located to get the statement.
While the Police officer was taking a statement from the owner of the jewellery store, he had made a phone call to his elder brother informing him about this.
However, later the brother of the jewellery shop owner had informed the Police about the incident and in a subsequent investigation the Police had found that the three suspects had trieD to fraudulently get the gold items from the shop owner. The Police have taken legal action against the suspects.