Father-of-two befriends girl, robs jewellery

W P Dharmasena- Matara group corr

A 42-year-old father of two, who had befriended a young girl at the Matara hospital and robbed her jewellery and cash amounting to nearly Rs 548,000 by taking her to a lonely spot on his motorbike, was arrested by the Matara Police Crimes Division, following a complaint made by the victim recently.

Police are also looking out for two other accomplices who had aided and abetted the suspect.

Police said the girl had been visiting her father warded at the Matara hospital. On one such visit a handsome man had approached and befriended her and promised all assistance in caring for her father.

This stranger had visited the hospital daily to meet the girl on her visits to the father. One day he had borrowed her mobile phone on the pretext of giving some vital calls saying his mobile phone was out of order due to a battery failure.

Police said the suspect had adopted this gimmick to register the girl’s mobile number on the phones of two other friends. On November 6 evening when the girl got ready to return home after visiting her father in hospital the suspect had persuaded her to travel with him on his motorbike to a lonely spot saying he had to discuss certain important private issues regarding their friendship.

The girl had agreed and climbed the pillion of the suspect’s motorcycle and the two had driven to a lonely spot at Kirala Kelle when two other youths had pounced and robbed the girl’s jewellery and cash at knife point and escaped. The cash snatched from her amounted to Rs 20,000.

The girl subsequently complained to the Matara police about the incident and police quickly sprung into action and took the main suspect into custody.

Investigations are on to apprehend the other two suspects involved and recover the robbed jewellery and cash.