18-Year-Old Renter Ties Up Housewife, Flees with Rs. 1.4 Million in Gold

 Kagalle Police announced yesterday (09) the arrest of four individuals, including a youth who was renting a room in the house, in connection with a robbery. The suspects allegedly tied up the homeowner, who had treated the youth like her own child and provided him with food and drink, and stole gold jewelry valued at Rs. 1,386,000.

The woman, who lived on the ground floor of a two-story house in the Molagoda area of Kegalle, was childless. Last September, after the individual who rented the upper floor was remanded due to a past offense, she took pity on his 18-year-old son and began providing him with daily food and drink.

On the afternoon of November 25th, the suspect youth lured the woman upstairs, claiming a room on the upper floor was leaking. There, with an accomplice he had brought, they tied her to a bed with wires, taped her mouth, and forcibly stripped her of the gold necklace, pendant, amulet, and a pair of earrings she was wearing.

The two suspects then covered the woman with a bedsheet and fled in a pre-arranged car. A neighboring woman, hearing groans from the house, came to investigate, rescued the distressed woman, and promptly reported the incident to the police.

Following an extensive police investigation, the primary suspect youth was apprehended when he visited his father, who was in remand custody.

Furthermore, three other individuals residing in the Kelaniya, Yakkala, Wewyagoda, and Minuwangoda areas, who allegedly aided and abetted him, along with the car used in the crime, have been taken into police custody.

Police reported that they successfully recovered the gold necklace and pendant, which the suspects had pawned at a center in the Minuwangoda area, along with the pair of earrings found in the main suspect's possession. A team of officers from the Criminal Investigation Division of the Kegalle Headquarters Police is conducting further investigations into the matter.