Candle
in the wind
Death of 12 year old Vinodini Silva:
When a police party led by HQI Negombo, Chief Inspector Somasiri
Liyange visited the house of teenager Vinodini Silva (12) located at
Rosari road at Kudapaluwa in Negombo area last Saturday it was around
2.30 p.m. What he witnessed that day in the kitchen sent a chill down
his spine even for a seasoned policeman like him.
A noose tied around the neck of a young school girl (12) was found
dangling from a piece of cloth tied to a rafter in the kitchen. Police
subsequently came to know from her brother, the deceased was his younger
sister named Vinodini Silva.
With experience in crime investigation, Chief Inspector Liyanage knew
that it was a gruesome and a cold blooded murder committed by a paranoid
person. The victim was a young grade 7 school girl. The Chief Inspector
suspected foul play after taking a closer look at the knot tied around
the young girls neck. It was a kind of a professional knot that was
common among fishermen in the area.
How could a 12 year old school girl tie such a professional knot
around her neck to commit suicide ? pondered Chief Inspector Liyanage?
Several thoughts flashed across his mind about the suspect who could
commit such a dastardly act on a 12 year old school girl. Vinodini Sliva
attended school in the Negombo area. She was the youngest in the family
of three.
Her father was deceased and her mother sold fish in the village to
keep the home fires burning. Vinodini’s brother aged 16 was also a
student in the Negombo. To earn a little money he helped fishermen to
sort out fish they brought from fishing expeditions. He helped his
mother and sister Vinodini with the little he earned.
Vinodini’s elder sister lived elsewhere with a relative in the same
village as her mother could not afford the burden of looking after the
three children. According Vinodini ‘s mother had told police that she
attended age about six months ago.
Meanwhile the horrible incident happened while Vinodini was alone at
home last Saturday. Her mother was away in the town selling fish while
her brother had gone to help fishermen in sorting out fish. According to
Police the suspect had gone to the house while both her mother and
brother were away. According to the report on the postmortem examination
conducted by the JMO Negombo Dr. Channa Perera it was revealed that
Vinodini had been sexually abused and strangled to death by hanging.
Meanwhile SSP Negombo Division, Premasiri Vithana instructed HQI
Negombo Police Station, Chief Inspector Somasiri Liyagane to conduct
further inquiries and arrest the perpetrator of the crime based on the
findings of the JMO’s report.
Meanwhile Police have taken in for questioning an uncle of the
deceased in connection with the crime. The suspect is being interrogated
whether he has had a sexual tryst with the girl after she attended age.
Police are also probing into allegations made by the neighbours that
the suspect was seen at the house on the day of the incident during the
absence of her mother and her brother. While being questioned he told
police that he had gone there for a bath. Meanwhile police are looking
for a mysterious person who had written several love letters to Vinodini.
Although the motive for the killing has not being revealed, the victim
had been sexually abused and strangled to death by hanging.
A number of school girls and young women have been sexually assaulted
and brutally murdered during the past few years. Last year a school girl
from Passara Maha Vidyalaya was raped and killed after being assaulted
with a blunt weapon on her head. Her body was found dumped on a lonely
stretch of an estate at Lunugala by a her mother.
Two years ago a fifteen old school girl, named Manori Malkanthi, was
brutally stabbed to death by a twenty two year old disgruntled young man
at Uragasmanhandiya, Ahungalle. She was stabbed to death for her refusal
to start an affair with him. In the same year a women clerk at the
Dehiwela Mount Lavina was shot and killed by a person while she was
walking home along a lonely road at Minnuwanwila.
The woman was two months pregnant at the time of the incident. Almost
three years ago Yvonne Johnson (19) was strangled to death outside her
apartment on the 19th floor of the Royal Park. The cycle of violence
unleashed against women has increased over the years.
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