Phone call scam: two women raided

Scaring influential people .. over telephone calls and asking for money,  under guise of terrorist investigation ...Two nabbed

   Mirihana police were able to cordon a massive-scale racket recently where certain individuals posing as high-rank police officers of a group investigating information related to the Tigers and the racketeers had targeted several influential medical practitioners and teachers asking for bribes, via telephone calls.

The new strategy of obtaining this money is a progress where anybody could be led astray.

These racketeers had inquired about the husband of a Maharagama teacher of a wealthy family. The husband was overseas at the time and the call had come at a time when the teacher was alone in the house.

"I am Ajith Kumara Pitigala, Police inspector of Pottuvil. We need to solve an issue regarding your husband. We have with us an LTTE member called Murugesu and according to his statement, he had entered into some transaction with your husband .... and keeping contacts with the LTTE is a bit of a serious thing. When checking the phone of Murugesu we were able to find calls taken to your husband's phone number 077XXXXX. Therefore we certainly have to question him ...". So saying, the caller had asked, "Can we meet your husband now?"

The teacher on believing what they had told that he is in UK and that he would be back in a few days' time. "Okay .... then as soon as he comes ... we'll have to take him into custody" Thus the caller had frightened the teacher and when she asked what she should do under such circumstances; being thoroughly confused. The caller had then responded saying .... "But madam .... in that case we can do some help. This whole thing is being handled by 6 of us ... you know, the files are with us .... however if you want to settle this without implications .... I can remove your husband's name .... this is a secret ... but we must be looked after".

"Okay ... how much do you want?"the teacher had asked, swallowing the pill. "We have 6 of us ... all of them have to be paid. I want 40 and the others will have to be paid 20 each .... all that will come to about 140000. Only if you quicken this ... we can do this .... if you can pay an advance as soon as possible, it'll be okay" the voice at the other end said.

The teacher who asked for a bank account number from him had later deposited 40000  at the bank that same day and had deposited the balance 85000 of the remaining 1 lakh the next day by mortgaging her own jewellery. Though she had tried to call the person who spoke to her in order to find out whether the deposited cash had been received, the following day ... the phone had been disconnected and she was to hear the voice-tape to that effect continuously which made her suspicious.

It was after this that she decided to complain about this to the police. This person who called her had also contacted a retired doctor down Obahena road in Kotte, giving the same name Ajith Kumara Pitigala of Potuvil police. In this  case the racketeer had said that a Tiger terrorist who was attempting to enter Australia from a boat had been arrested, and on checking him, a slip of paper was found where a tranquilizer prescribed to him was written. Since the name of this doctor was seen on it, the doctor was told that he has to be taken in for questioning.

This retired doctor was told that the prescription bore the date 1988 and that he may have to face serious consequences for having helped the Tiger Movement. When the doctor had rejected this allegation, he was told that the Tiger concerned had been accompanied by a Sinhala woman.

The doctor who had become terribly frightened had deposited 5 lakhs in 3 installments to the caller's account from a government bank in Pelawatta fearing that he would be trapped for a serious crime. However, when the doctor too had tried to get man on the phone, he had found that the line was disconnected. 

Later when he had informed a relative of his, the relative had said that it could be a fraud and had advised him to complain to the DIG. It was then that the doctor had sought the assistance of the police.

The police on pursuing the racketeers having received a number of similar complaints by tracking the relative phone numbers were able to recover information about 2 women. They were finally nabbed in Battaramulla and Homagama. The police found a number of bank books, many bogus documents in their possession as well as about 1 lakh and 40000 in cash earned by fraud.

On questioning the women, they revealed that the person involved disguised as a police officer has a hoarse voice and that he was a resident of Balapitiya; but that there was still another person involved in this racket. The police are taking steps to track the others too. When checking on their names, it was understood that they were persons who had been connected to vehicle frauds of a massive-scale and had even faced punishment for their crimes earlier.

Though they had been successful in duping over 500 people in this manner by phone calls and thus collected a large sum of money, the police say that they have presently received only 50 complaints and that a majority of complainants have not come forward because those of the elite class who were victims have been embarrassed in visiting the police and making a statement over such an issue.

The 2 women taking into custody from among the four suspects involved were produced before Kaduwela Magistrate a few days ago.