A soldier and four other men have been arrested by Kebithigollewa Police over the theft of three milch cows worth more than Rs. 1.5 million.
The main suspect is a 25-year-old soldier attached to an army camp in the Trincomalee area who lives in Kebithigollewa, the Daily Mirror reported. The four others are aged between 25 and 37 and come from the same area.
Investigators allege the group took three milch cows that had been tethered in a home garden in Handagala. The animals were valued at more than Rs. 1.5 million — roughly half a million rupees a head, reflecting the price of productive dairy stock rather than beef cattle.
Kebithigollewa sits in the north of the Anuradhapura District, close to the boundary with Vavuniya and Trincomalee. Cattle theft is a persistent complaint among smallholder dairy farmers across the North Central dry zone, where animals are commonly tethered in household plots overnight rather than kept in secured sheds.
Inspector of Police Ranjith Hematilaka, officer-in-charge of the Crime Investigation Branch at Kebithigollewa Police, is conducting further investigations.
Not reported
The filing does not say when the theft took place, when the arrests were made, or whether the cows were recovered. It gives no indication of whether the suspects have been produced in court or what charges are contemplated, and carries no comment from the Sri Lanka Army on the status of the serving soldier named as the main suspect. No other newsroom had reported the case at the time of writing.
