Galle Chief Magistrate remanded a man and a woman until January 23, who had been arrested on suspicion for allegedly inserting fraudulently reconstructed folios in the land registers of Galle District Land Registry. Galle Police had produced them before the magistrate on Thursday.
The suspects were identified as Gallage Nimalka Thilini Fernando, aged 42 of Diyagama Road, Kahathuduwa and Hiripitiyage Sahan Chaminda aged 48 of Uduwana, Homagama.
The officials of Galle Division Intelligence Unit, who were on alert caught the suspects in the act on January 3 and handed them over to Criminal Investigation Department (CID) for further investigations.
The investigations revealed that the couple had got permission to examine the land registers at Galle Land Registry fraudulently using official stamps of two lawyers in Gampaha and Negombo. Further they had furtively removed the authentic folios of valuable lands and replaced them with reconstructed new folios by mutilating and obliterating the originals with increased extents. Later they had prepared duplicitous deeds in respect of such lands for which they had charged exorbitant fees from various people.
Having sensed the sneaky exploit of the suspects an Additional District Registrar on instructions from Galle District Land Registrar had complained to Galle Police, who initiated cautious investigations into the alleged incident. Accordingly Galle Division Intelligence Unit officials, who were on alert had arrested the duo red handed. At the time of the arrest the Intelligence officials had also detected two official stamps belonging to lawyers of Gampaha and Negombo. Investigations further revealed that most of the lands to which they had made duplicitous deeds by altering folios are in Akmeemana, Badegama and Pinnaduwa areas. The police also took into their custody a motor car in which they had travelled to Galle. Remarkably the racketeers had altered the folios of a land belonging to an official of the Galle Land Registry.
SI Udaya Shantha and Sergeant Bandara (186) on instructions from Galle SP prosecuted, while a group of attorneys including Sisira Weerasooriya appeared for the suspects.
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