Couple Arrested for Lorry Hijack and Extortion Near Ingiriya Cemetery

 Ingiriya Police state that a married couple has been arrested in connection with an alleged incident of forcibly hijacking a lorry worth over one million rupees, along with four individuals, near the Ingiriya Mah Ingiriya Cemetery.

Officers have also succeeded in locating the hijacked lorry related to this incident and taking it into police custody. Preliminary police investigations have revealed that a person residing in the upper part of Raigam Watta, Ingiriya, engaged in the cardboard trade, had obtained this lorry about five years ago on a payment basis for approximately one million fifty thousand rupees. Later, when the leasing company repossessed the vehicle due to an inability to pay installments, the suspect woman, a resident of Nambapana area, Ingiriya, had borrowed 1.1 million rupees from her and redeemed the vehicle.

Subsequently, when the suspect woman informed that she needed an additional three hundred and fifty thousand rupees, besides the 1.1 million rupees already given, the complainant obtained a new leasing facility for the lorry through a friend and paid her 1.25 million rupees. Although an interest payment of twenty thousand rupees per month was given to the suspect for eight months until the remaining two hundred thousand rupees from trade activities could be paid, the police state that the complainant failed to pay two months' interest in between.

On the day of the incident, while the complainant, the driver, a friend, and his father were returning towards Padukka after coming to Ingiriya town for trade activities, the suspect woman and her husband arrived on a motorcycle near the Mah Ingiriya Cemetery, blocked the lorry, and stopped it. Threatening that they would not release the lorry if the money owed to them was not paid, and that they would take the lorry, they ordered the group traveling in the lorry to get into its rear.

After getting into the rear of the lorry due to fear of potential trouble from the suspects, the group was forcibly taken to the suspect woman's house, and the complainant lodged a complaint with the police stating that they had detained the vehicle, saying it would only be released if the money was paid. Accordingly, the police immediately acted, arrested the married couple who allegedly hijacked the lorry along with four individuals, and initiated further investigations.