Three-year jail term for selling cigarettes to school children

• The suspect sold cigarettes to a schoolboy in Thanamalwila, who resold them to fellow students 

By Dilip Jayasekara  

A trader who had in his possession a consignment of foreign cigarettes smuggled to the country and sold them to school children was sentenced to three years imprisonment, suspended for five years and fined Rs. 200,000 by Hambantota Magistrate on Thursday evening.  

The 38-year-old suspect was a resident of Sooriyawewa New Town.  

The Principal of a school in Thanamalwila area had informed the police that a schoolboy was selling cigarettes to his fellow students in school. Thanamalwila Police, who initiated investigations, questioned the schoolboy to find that he received the stock of cigarettes from the suspect trader in Thanamalwila town and that he had been carrying on the racket for a long time.  

Police said the suspect trader had sold them for Rs. 100 each to the schoolboy, who sold them to his fellow students for Rs.200.  During investigations, the police seized a stock of 690 foreign cigarettes and cash Rs. 388,590 earned by him through this contraband trade.  

Thanamalwila Police, who conducted investigations and arrested the suspect, had handed him over to the Sooriyawewa Police for further action. A police team under HQI Thanamalwila Police D.M.P.Bandara had conducted investigations.