The Dikoya double murderer thief who killed a married couple to acquire gold items has been arrested.

Breaking the silence of Hatton and Dikoya towns, shrouded in mist in the central hills, the dark shadows of that cruel murder, which inhumanely snatched the lives of a helpless elderly couple, still linger throughout the town.

The main suspect who committed this shocking double murder by slitting the throats of the victims with the intention of robbing eighteen pounds of gold jewelry was apprehended by the police this afternoon (23). Hatton Senior Superintendent of Police, Mr. Pradeep Weerasekera, confirmed that all the stolen gold jewelry, including the gold necklace worn by the murdered woman, was recovered intact from the suspect when he was arrested while hiding in the Bogawantalawa area.

The 82-year-old couple, S. Kalimuththu Saththivel and his wife Sagunthaladevi, who were spending the twilight years of their lives in freedom, faced this unfortunate fate while living alone in their closed old shop, with their children residing in the Colombo area. The killer, having well understood their isolation and vulnerability, meticulously planned this inhumane crime on the 21st, spending hours roaming the town under the guise of buying a gold necklace.

CCTV footage and public support were instrumental in apprehending the suspect who fled after committing the crime. Preliminary investigations revealed that the suspect, a resident of Badulla who is married from the Dikoya area, had fled for his safety after the crime to a house belonging to a woman he had met on Facebook, located in the Petraso Tea Estate in Bogawantalawa.

Although the apprehension of the suspect brought some relief to the family's relatives, this incident has left a serious question mark for the entire society regarding the safety of elderly parents living alone. The terrifying thought of how this society has become so cruel as to slit the throats of two helpless elders, like one's own grandparents, out of greed for a few gold ornaments, still haunts the minds of the townspeople today.

The bodies of Saththivel and Sagunthaladevi, who spent their entire lives and finally drew their last breath cruelly in that very shop, are now silently laid to rest there. Tomorrow (24), they will be committed to the earth at the Dikoya Public Cemetery, silently reminding the whole world how cheap the value of humanity has become.