Sri Lankan arrested while attempting to leave Maldives after theft of a phone, MVR 25K

A Sri Lankan national has been arrested while allegedly attempting to leave the country after stealing mobile phone and MVR 25,000 he stole from a shop in Malé.

According to Criminal Court’s remand order from Tuesday, the suspect, identified as Chandrasekaran Anthony, is accused of theft. He was reportedly employed at a retail outlet in Male’.

Evidence submitted to the court includes the suspect’s flight ticket, a formal complaint filed by the victim, an incident report, statements from two witnesses, and still images from CCTV footage that allegedly identify the suspect.

The court order states that the suspect allegedly stole a mobile phone and MVR 25,000, which represented the shop’s sales revenue for the day.

Citing the investigating officer, the order stated that other employees of the shop identified the individual seen in the CCTV footage as the suspect.

In his defense, the suspect told the court that he had resigned from the shop ten days before the incident and maintained that he was at another location when the alleged theft occurred.

According to statistics publicized by Maldives Police Service, a total of 2,326 theft cases have been reported to the authority so far this year.