Chavakachcheri police have arrested two men over the theft of cables worth more than Rs. 1.3 million from the National Water Supply and Drainage Board’s water purification plant at Meesalai, in the Jaffna district, Hiru News reported.
The arrests followed an investigation into a complaint made to Chavakachcheri police.
The two in custody
The suspects are aged 23 and 43, and are residents of Neervely and Kotagala respectively.
One of them is employed as a security officer at the water purification plant — the detail that turns a routine metal theft into an internal security failure at a piece of public water infrastructure.
The pairing of localities is itself unusual: Neervely is in the Jaffna peninsula, a short distance from the plant, while Kotagala is in the Nuwara Eliya district, some 400km south in the central hill country.
Not reported
Hiru does not say when the theft occurred or when the arrests were made, does not name either suspect, and does not say which of the two is the security officer. It does not say whether the plant’s water supply or operations were disrupted by the loss of the cabling, whether the cables have been recovered, or whether either man has been produced in court. No response from the Water Board is recorded, and no other verified newsroom had filed on the case at the time of writing.
