Racketeers defraud donors, fleece flood victims

May 22, 2016

Woman leading the racket giving commands to her cronies. Pix by Nishan S Priyantha

Relief items fraudulently obtained being stored in a container

By Norman Palihawadane and Nishan S Priyantha

The Island yesterday captured images of a group exploiting the tragic situation to cheat unsuspecting donors and fleece marooned flood victims.

A woman racketeer deployed her cronies, consisting mostly of drug addicts, near the Kelani Bridge to collect relief items being distributed by hundreds of kind hearted donors. The relief goods meant for the people living in temporary huts on the bridge were then stored in a nearby container.

A group of men took the relief items from there to a place near the Biyagama Road, where they were sorted. Thereafter, another group sold the relief items to the flood victims.

When our photographers captured some images of this operation, several thugs threatened them. Cronies of the woman forced them to delete the images recorded in their cameras. But, they managed to retain some of them.

A senior military official handling relief operations near the Kelani Bridge told The Island that he and his men had seen the racketeers in action, but their priority was to provide relief to the needy people. "All we can do at the moment is request donors not to distribute their relief parcels themselves but to hand them over to the police

or security personnel and their offices set up near the Kelani Bridge," the senior official said.

When asked what action had been taken to prevent the group of racketeers, police said that they could not take action it since they had not received any complaint.

Colombo North SSP, Ajith Rohana said a team of police intelligence unit members would be deployed to arrest those defrauding donors and fleecing the flood victims. He said that the police had received complaints of outsiders coming to the Kelani Bridge and collecting relief material posing as flood victims. Any impersonators would be arrested and severely dealt with, he said.