The Colombo Crime Division (CCD) yesterday arrested a four-member armed gang responsible for the Rs 13 million robbery at the Union Bank, Wellawatte recently.

The gang leader is the son of a retired Deputy Inspector General of Police who had earned the respect of the public and the Department, the CCD said.

By yesterday noon police had recovered four million ruppes.

Among those arrested is an officer of a Union Bank branch close to Colombo who is the mastermind behind the operation, police said.

Investigations have revealed that the DIG’s son, an ex- captain of the army, was responsible for breaking into the bank with another, holding the staff and the security guards at gun point, covering their mouths with sticking plaster and tying them with ropes, police said.

"The gang had assaulted the person who brought the keys of the automatic teller machine and later robbed cash from the machine to the tune of Rs. 13 million.

The gang thereafter robbed the vehicle of the bank manager and got away with the loot along Vivekananda Mawatha. They abandoned the getaway car some distance away and fled in another vehicle.

The gang had entered the bank around 7.30 a.m. on April 24, claiming that they had come to repair the teller machine of the bank.