COLOMBO, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) -- The Sri Lankan Police on Wednesday arrested four people for stealing a precious blue sapphire stone valued at an estimated 137,000 U.S. dollars from a local businessman.
The police said that the businessman who was from the southern town of Beruwala, had lodged a complaint last week, alleging that his sapphire had been stolen when he gave it to a local dealer in Colombo to polish and cut the stone.
The Criminal Investigations Department along with the Terrorism Investigations Department took over the probe and recovered the stone from the thieves, the police said.
Sri Lanka is responsible for much of the world's production of sapphires. The gem industry in Sri Lanka, for which sapphire is the main export, is worth at least 103 million dollars annually.
