A married couple who gagged an old woman, robbed her gold earrings, and used drugs has been caught.

A husband and wife couple, who allegedly gagged the mouth of a 91-year-old elderly woman residing in a two-story house in Katana, Dagonna area, robbed her gold earrings and other jewelry she was wearing, and pawned them for Rs. 45,000, have been arrested by the Criminal Investigation Division of Katana Police. It has been revealed that they bought and consumed drugs with that money. Police officers were able to apprehend the suspects near the Negombo District General Hospital on the 26th of last month.

The suspect who committed this crime came to the house where the elderly woman resided, asking if she needed coconuts picked from the garden. He stated that he had brought his wife along to collect the coconuts once they were picked. After receiving permission from the resident woman to pick coconuts, when she went down to the garden, this couple together grabbed her, gagged her mouth with a cloth to prevent her from screaming, and pushed her to the ground. The police state that the woman, severely shocked by this unexpected incident, fainted immediately.

Afterwards, the couple removed the gold jewelry from the unconscious woman lying on the ground and fled the scene. Meanwhile, a granddaughter who was upstairs in the house, noticing her grandmother was not visible on the ground floor, went to investigate. Upon seeing her grandmother lying unconscious at the bottom of the garden, she, with the help of neighbors, immediately took steps to hospitalize her. While the woman was admitted to Negombo Hospital and receiving treatment, she was transferred to the National Hospital in Colombo for further treatment.

Interrogations of the arrested suspects revealed that the stolen jewelry was pawned for forty-five thousand rupees, and the money was used to buy and consume drugs. Both are residents of Puttalam, Madurankuliya area; the husband is 27 years old, and the wife is 25 years old. Police investigations further confirmed that both of them have been addicted to drug use for several years.

These investigations have been carried out under the instructions of Katana Police Station OIC, Chief Police Inspector Mr. Wasantha Sudasinghe. Accordingly, Inspector Ayosh Perera, OIC of the Criminal Investigation Division, Sub-Inspector Senaratne, Police Sergeant Dulip (38852), as well as Police Constables Mendis (82073), Wickramasinghe (84115), and Nishan (101536) are conducting further investigations into this incident.