THE BIGGEST RANSOM (99 Apr 07)
A ransom of Rs. twenty million was demanded and obtained by a gang to release Mr. G. C. Wickremasinghe a director of the Aitken Spence Co. Ltd., whom the gang had abducted. This is believed to be the biggest ransom paid in Sri Lanka.
The police has released the serial numbers of the thousand rupee notes in which the ransom was paid and already they have recovered about Rs. two million.
This is another example that demonstrates the extent of violence that has crept into the society and the breakdown of the authority of the law enforcing bodies. Even if the police recovers all the money paid as ransom and captures the criminals this would have created a precedence for the other such criminals to follow.