The toddy tapper's trap

He was a rustic man from Kochikade, Negombo who eked out a living by tapping coconut trees in his village. A married man who lived with his wife and three children in Welihena South at Kochikade for several years.

The meagre income he derived from tapping coconut trees wasn't enough to upkeep a family. Life became miserable for the family as they lived beyond the poverty line. This often led to frequent squabbles with his spouse. The man came home drunk daily and began assaulting his wife over trivial arguments. The wife began despising him due to his drunkenness. The couple led a cat and a dog's life for several years.

As things went from bad to worse over the years, the wife was fortunate to find employment as a domestic servant in a Middle Eastern country.

She migrated to the Middle East ten years ago leaving her small children in the custody of her husband. While she was away for several years in the Middle East, the man developed a passionate liaison with a woman from the same village.

She was a divorced woman with good looks of around forty years of age. She had three daughters from her previous marriage. As she could not afford to take care of her three children, she handed them to a home that looked after destitute children.

The woman naturally fell for the Toddy tappers charms. She came into the life at a time when his wife was away in the Middle East. Knowing well that his spouse was away, she decided to live with her paramour at his home and take care of his children. Being an uneducated man he was not concerned of committing adultery in the absence of his wife.

He lived in co-habitation for about two years until the woman decided to go to the Middle East in search of greener pastures. She had found employment in Abu-Dhabi. On the day of her departure, the man hired a vehicle from his village and dropped her at the Bandarananike International Airport (BIA). The man thereafter became desperate, having lost both women.

Nevertheless he continued to work as a toddy tapper and looked after his children. After being employed in Abu Dhabi for about two years the woman returned to Sri Lanka.

Her paramour picked her up from the BIA and brought her home. After working for several years in the Middle East his lawful wife too returned to Sri Lanka. By then she had come to know of her husband's illicit affair with the woman.

To avoid a conflict with her husband, she decided to stay with her elder son, who was married and was living separately at Welihena South. According to the Kochikade police, the two women had met in Abu-Dhabi and had become close acquaintances.

There were no quarrels between them. They understood their relationship with the man and lived in harmony in the village. After living with her paramour for a few years, the woman once again went to the Middle East for employment.

According to Police, after the woman left to the Middle East, the man had approached her daughter who was languishing at a home for destitute children. By then her daughter was a grown up woman. He invited her home. When she came to live with him he discreetly cultivated an illicit affair with her as well. This resulted in the girl becoming pregnant and undergoing two abortions.

After working in the Middle East for a couple of years the girl's mother returned to Sri Lanka secretly. She did not even inform her paramour that she was arriving in Sri Lanka.

It so happened that whilst in the Middle East she came to know about the sordid affair involving her daughter. This upset her a great deal. When she unexpectedly, returned home her paramour was furious about it. He was furious that the mother would learn about his relationship with the daughter.

The woman had lived for about a week at her paramour's home at Welihena South. By then his children had grown up and moved away. During that period they quarrelled constantly with each other over the visit of a muslim man from Ragama. He regularly visited the woman in the absence of the toddy tapper.

When the toddy Tapper came to know about it he was boiling with anger. The incident happened on September 5. The Toddy tapper had come home around 8 p.m. and had quarrelled with his woman. Thereafter they had gone to sleep switching off the bedroom lamp.

At about 12 midnight he had woken up in the dark and having grabbed a knife had stabbed her on the neck. He then held her mouth with one hand to prevent her from screaming. In the meantime the woman had bled profusely and had succumbed to her injuries.

The following morning he lifted her body and kept it in a room. As if nothing had happened he went to work on the following day and returned that night with a bottle of Arrack which he purchased from a tavern. That night he dug up a big hole in the backyard of his compound and buried the corpse in it. Having done that a tree was planted over it to camouflage the scene.

A few days later on a tip off received by OIC Kochikade Police station, Chief Inspector T. A. Dole the suspect was arrested and questioned. The suspect toddy tapper told the police exactly what took place that night.

The OIC was assisted by OIC Crimes, Sub-Inspector Milton and Police Sergeant Rajaratne who recovered the knife used in the killing hidden inside a pot. The suspect was produced before court and remanded pending further investigation.

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