16 October 2014 10:39 am
By T. Farook Thajudeen
A man was arrested at the Bastian Street bus terminal on charges of possessing a hitherto little known gecko identified as “Kabara Huna”.
The suspect said a police officer had asked him to bring the rare Gecko and a valuable conch shell to Colombo to be sold for a high price.
Suspect Dhayan Chaminda, a resident of Boossa, had revealed this in Court.
The suspect was produced before Colombo Chief Magistrate Gihan Pilapitiya by PS (30520) K.D.S. Chandraratne of the Pettah Police.
He told Court that the arrest was made on October 14 after an informant told SI Tennakoon that the suspect had in his possession a rare gecko to be sold for Rs.600,000. Attorney-at-law Chandra Abeyratne appearing for the suspect said the police had assumed that the Gecko was worth Rs.600,000. He said it was a police officer who had asked the suspect to bring the gecko to Colombo to be sold.
Mr Abeyratne said the gecko was a common species found inside houses and requested that his client be released on bail.
The Magistrate remanded the suspect till October 17 and directed the Police to hand over the gecko to the Dehiwela Zoo and asked the police to obtain a report from the zoo and trace the Police officer who was supposed to have given the phone calls.