Operation 'Dirty Canal' in Mawanella

Operation 'Dirty Canal' launched by police .... to catch robber on seen on CCTV

Police officers have been successful in nabbing a suspect hiding in a drain after about 6 hours. He had jumped into this drain while robbing a shop in the town of Mawanella. The owner of the shop in Mawanella has had a CCTV camera installed in his shop and it was displayed on his mobile phone that night around 12 midnight when he was in the house that a robber with his eyes covered, was seen moving around inside the shop.

As such, he had immediately informed police. A police team had then arrived at the spot concerned and surrounded the shop.

The robber on understanding that the police had surrounded the shop trying to track his movements had made use of a small opening in the shop and had come out when at that moment a police officer had been watching just when the robber had managed to get into a drain nearby, avoiding the police officer.



The drain was big enough for a human being to walk and the culprit had dived into the drain at which moment the police officer had shouted, "the robber is here!" and had summoned others to catch the robber. Police officers who had come to view the drain had realised that it was like a tunnel which covered a lengthy area with only a few openings. They understood that by diving into it the robber could manage to release himself from one such opening.

The police found that there were 3 such openings and it was decided to keep watch till early morning at that spot until the culprit came out. Several police officers had been kept there to keep watch and the robber had been hiding at some place by in the dirty waste water until dawn broke and the police left.

Police dogs were deployed at about 630 early in the morning and through their scent  to exactly locate where he was. However, this strategy did not bear results because the dogs stopped only at the place where the suspect jumped into the waste water.

Subsequently the police utilised the services of 2 labourers attached to the municipality to clear drains together with the assistance of a police officer in the operations of going into the drain concerned. Finally the three of them managed to pull the robber out after a short time. The suspect who had been hiding for a number of hours had been drenched with waste water all over his body during that period.

It was thus learned that the suspect who had indulged in robbery this way was a 19 year old youth residing in Ratnapura area.

He later confessed that he had gone to Kandy and was once again returning to Ratnapura. Since he did not have finances to travel by bus, he had decided to rob the shop.

Whatever it is, at the time the suspect was caught after such an operation, he has had only Rs.2,500 which was robbed from the shop in his possession.