• Trickster had instructed them to remove their earrings to portray that they were poor

By Yohan Perera

Two elderly women who happened to be sisters who had come to seek medical assistance at the Colombo eye Hospital have been robbed by a man who had promised to introduce them to an eye specialist.  

Two sisters Hemalatha and Premawathi, residents of Waga in Padukka had come to seek medical treatment and said the earrings they were wearing were robbed by a man who had tricked them.

  
Premawathi said they were met by the suspect who promised to introduce them to an eye specialist who is known to him. “He said he would introduce us to an eye specialist and get him to treat us free of charge. He instructed us to remove our earrings so that he could prove that we are poor. We followed him and removed our earrings and wrapped it in a piece of paper which he gave us. We also tied it up with a handkerchief and kept it. Later we found out that he had pinched it,” Premawathi said.

  
They had then gone to lodge a complaint at a nearby police station. However the policeman there had refused to write down the complaint saying the incident had occurred outside the territory that comes under their purview. Later they lodged a complaint at the Maradana Police station.  
“ We are poor helpless women and hope that justice will be meted out to us,” Premawathi said.