Thief who posed himself off as the victim dies

Police had received a call from a man from Tangalle complaining that his house had been burgled and jewellery valued at more than Rs.300, 000 had been stolen

A man who had been found lying by the roadside on the Kataragama – Situlapawwa Road with minor external injuries, had told police that he was waylaid and assaulted by an unidentified gang.

He told them that he had thrown his purse containing cash and jewellery into the jungle when he saw the gang approaching him. On hearing the man’s story the police had gone to the area where the complainant had said he dumped his valuables and had managed to recover the purse that contained jewellery valued at more than Rs.300,000 and cash Rs.1500 from a shrub jungle. The injured man was admitted to the Kataragama Hospital because he was complaining of a chest pain but had died at the hospital.

During the investigation that followed, police had received a call from a man from Tangalle complaining that his house had been burgled and jewellery valued at more than Rs.300, 000 had been stolen while he and his family were away on a trip to Colombo. Police had compared the items lost by the complainant with the items found in the shrub jungle that had been ‘dumped’ by the man who had allegedly been attacked by a gang of thieves and had come to the conclusion that the man had lied to them about being the victim of a robbery and was instead the robber himself.