Officers of the Crimes Investigation Division of the Kadawatha Police have succeeded in taking into custody within an hour of the robbery, a vehicle carrying Rs 2.6 million worth of cash and cigarettes, which was taken at gun point at about 1:00 p.m. on Saturday.
The robbers had used a locally manufactured Galkatas type of firearm and carried out the hijacking at Bathiya Mawatha, Makola, Kiribathgoda.
The robbers had arrived when the vehicle belonging to a cigarette agency located in Kadawatha had stopped on Bathiya Mawatha, Makola, in Kiribathgoda, to conduct business at a shop, when they had accosted the vehicle, brandishing the firearm, and got away in it.
At that juncture the driver had informed the owner. As the vehicle had been fixed with GPS facilities, the owner had run to the Kadawatha Police Station with his laptop in hand.
Accordingly, the Kadawatha Police, Crimes Investigation Division officers had taken immediate action and pursued the stolen van and the robbers with the help of GPS technology.
The robber had hit the Police vehicle and fled. Police had pursued and caught up with the robbers at Rathupaswela and taken into custody the van and the robbers.
Police had recovered Rs 1,857,000 in cash and cigarettes valued at Rs 769,770 that were in the vehicle.
Police said the individual involved in the robbery was released from prison only 12 days ago, having been sentenced to prison for robbing Rs 5 million from a Bank in Attidiya.
