Terrorized teacher gets justice from DIG

June 29, 2012, 9:45 pm

By Madura Ranwala

A retired teacher, who taught at St. Peter’s College, Colombo for years and lived in London for 20 years, was terrorised and robbed of his gold chain by an intruder who broke into his house. The victim did not get any help from the Mirihana police even after a few days, but finally he got results in a matter of hours when he sought the assistance of the Mirihana DIG.

The complainant, 70-year-old J. D. Samaranayake, who lives with his wife in a two-storeyed house along with two maids at Subadrarama Lane, Nugegoda, told The Island yesterday that he had first made a complaint to the police emergency unit but they had reached his home after he made second call and that too one and half hours later.

Thereafter, for six days the victim had lived in fear as the police had done nothing to apprehend the intruder.

When The Island contacted DIG Sumith Edirisinghe, he said that they had been able to arrest the suspect, who had earlier been a gardener at the house of the retired teacher for five years, while he was working in a hotel in Beruwela.

The suspect had left the house six months back the victim said.

DIG Edirisinghe said that the suspect had been produced before the Gangodawila Magistrate on June 22 and remanded for two weeks. He said that the suspect had been arrested less than 24 hours after the complaint was made to him and he credited it to personnel attached to the special crimes investigation unit, coming under him.

According to Samaranayake, the burglar was masked. "When I was about to open a cupboard in an upper bedroom around 6.20 a.m. on June 15. to give him money as demanded, he snatched my chain worth one hundred thousand rupees and pushed me into a bathroom and locked it," he said.

He added that the burglar had come the previous morning and hidden under the staircase of the house the whole day.

"I am impressed with the Mirihana DIG who acted professionally and efficiently and if there are DIGs like him in Sri Lanka serving the people in this manner, there would be no burglars," he said.