Indian official's limousine stolen in Ambepussa

[TamilNet, Saturday, 23 July 2005, 16:30 GMT]
Thieves stole the limousine of the Deputy Indian High Commissioner in Sri Lanka, Mr Ramanpillai, at gun point in Ambepussa, a popular tourist spot along the Colombo-Kandy road Saturday morning. The incident took place at around 10:30 a.m. when the Deputy Indian envoy who is based in Kandy stopped his vehiche and entered the Ambepussa Rest House for tea with his family, sources said.

The diplomat was travelling from Kandy to Colombo for the weekend sources said.

The Toyota vehicle was driven away by the unidentified gunmen towards Colombo and the police has launched a man hunt to apprehend the thieves and recover the vehicle sources said.

Police enlisted the support of the Air Force to conduct aerial search along the Colombo-Kandy high way from where the vehicle was taken away.

The Indian High Commission has two offices in SriLanka. The main office is situated in Capital Colombo and the second office is in the hill capital Kandy .

The Kandy office deals with the interests of the tea estate workers of Indian Origin, diplomatic sources said.