Doctor’s stethoscope robbed by ‘fake’ inspector in Chilaw

A retired doctor was abducted in Chilaw and robbed of his stethoscope by a man who pretended to be an inspector.

The Chilaw Police arrested a person who had carried out the theft and was engaged in running a CCTV fixing business, on Thursday (23) evening.

Rohan Nilantha Fernando (51), a resident of Malwatta Road, Chilaw, Merawala was arrested over this act.

This person pretending to be a police inspector had abducted the retired doctor residing in Kalutara and robbed his stethescope.This doctor had retired while working at the Chilaw

Hospital.

Police said that this doctor had gone to meet a friend in Kilinochchi and was returning home when he got off the train on February 11 and he was expecting to meet another friend

in Chilaw.

It was late at night when the doctor had got off the bus. Therefore, he had not been able to find his friend.He had been walking from the Thavarana railway station towards the Chilaw – Colombo Road with the intention of traveling to Colombo. There, a person who had come on a

motorcycle had stopped near him and introduced himself as a police inspector. Then he checked the identity of the doctor and said,”How can you say that you are a real doctor?. Get on the bike and let’s go to the police” he had threatened the doctor, showing a ‘pistol’ he had on his waist.

The doctor had climbed on the motorcycle and instead of taking him to the police, he had been taken to the Chilaw Hospital. The man who took the doctor to the Chilaw hospital police

called a police constable on night duty and introduced himself as a police inspector and said that he wanted to verify if this person was a real doctor. There, the police constable saluted this individual and said, there is no way to check something like this at this time of the night.”

“It is ok. I will take him to the police,said the man who asked the doctor to climb on to the motorcycle again and then had taken him to the Chilaw bus stop and said, “We are looking after the security this night. You, people are playing with us,” and then checked the bag the doctor was carrying. There had been a stethescope in that bag and the person disguised as a police inspector had taken it and said, “You go everywhere with the stethoscope. Wait, I’ll teach you a lesson”

The individual had taken a photograph of the doctor using his mobile phone and said, “Now you

go. But wherever you are, I will find you, as I have a photo of you.Releasing the doctor, the person disguised as a police inspector had left the place.

Frightened by this, the doctor had travelled to Colombo on a late-night bus and complained about his ordeal to the Inspector General of Police relief room at the police headquarters. He had mentioned that a police officer had pointed a firearm at him and robbed him of his stethoscope

which was a lowly thing to do.

The Inspector General had forwarded this complaint to the Chilaw Division SSP Lalith Rohana Gamage, who had conducted a comprehensive investigation in this regard. Accordingly, a police team met the doctor and after

examining all the information, an investigation was launched by checking security camera footage.

Accordingly, the police had been able to identify the person who robbed the doctor’s stethoscope and arrested him along with the motorcycle that was used to take the doctor from place to place

as well as the pistol he had on his waist. The police said that the pistol was a toy pistol similar to a real firearm.