Suspicion leads to tragedy

Little daughter pays the price:

Nayodhya Sewmini was a toddler, a girl just three-year-old who needed care, protection and guidance of her parents. She was growing up fast and in a few years time would attend school in her village. But things never happened that way and her fate was decreed otherwise. She was murdered by her own father who nurtured her from her birth.

Her parents led a quarrelsome life and always argued over petty issues. But the little girl had no inkling of what went on in her home. She was too young to understand the squabbles at home. Nor did she understand her father’s jealousy, intrigue and hatred towards her mother.

Her father Wasantha always suspected his wife Madurangani of having an affair with a man in the neighbourhood that fuelled anger and resentment. Although he quarrelled with her often he was also very possessive of her. The age gap between them made him very jealous of her. He was 30 years old and she was in her early twenties. This was his second marriage. He divorced his first wife some time back and was even ordered by Courts to pay maintenance to her, police said.

Little Nayodhya Sewmini was their youngest daughter who lived with her parents in Hingalgoda village in the Hiniduma area. A cute little loveable girl adored by her neighbours and her mother. Both her parents were poor and illiterate labourers who eked out a living by plucking tea leaves in a nearby tea estate belonging to a landlord named Nandasena.

Their home which was built out of wooden planks was situated close to Mallika Vidyalaya in their village. The couple had no fixed abode and came to live there two years ago along with Wasantha’s mother.

The land where they built the home also belonged to Nandasena, the proprietor of the tea estate. According to the wishes of Wasantha and his wife Madurangani their eldest son aged seven was ordained as a Buddhist monk at the Iddaketiya temple in the Hiniduma area.

Wasantha met Madurangani while he was employed at a tea estate in Karagoda area a few years back. It was love at first sight. They fell in love and a few months later got married. After their marriage, the couple worked in several small tea plantations in the Hiniduma area. Although it was a love marriage, it turned sour when Madurangani was suspected of having a passionate fling with a man.

Thereafter life wasn’t a bed of roses for them. Things took a violent turn when Wasantha grabbed Madurangani last month and forcibly made her drink kerosene oil. She almost choked to death and before she could grasp her breath he doused her clothes with Kerosene oil and set them ablaze. As a result she sustained severe burn injuries on her chest.

Her blouse was completely burnt as a result. The incident took place on 27 of July, after a heated argument over some issue. He was a cunning and a wicked man by nature. After his wife sustained burn injuries he did not allow her to seek treatment from the village hospital fearing arrest by the police.

With severe burn wounds, Madurangani however left home with her child on the following day to Yakkalamulla where her mother resides. She carefully planned the trip beforehand after Wasantha left home that day for work. With agonizing pain she travelled with her daughter by bus to Yakkalamulla.

While she was on her way to Yakkalamulla, Wasantha who arrived in a Three Wheeler taxi spotted Madurangani and her child. He then spoke to her and persuaded her to return home with her daughter. But his appeal fell on deaf years and it was to no avail. She was adamant not to go back with her husband and her child to Hiniduma.

Meanwhile Madhurangani pleaded with him to let her visit her mother as she needed some rest. Wasantha in the meantime grabbed his daughter from her clutches and returned to Hiniduma in the same taxi. Meanwhile Madurangani on the pretext of visiting her mother got herself admitted to the Karapitiya hospital to seek treatment for her burn injuries. On the following day when Wasantha came to know about it, he visited the Karapitiya hospital and coaxed her not to divulge anything to the police.

However by that time the Karapitiya Hospital police post had recorded statement of Madurangani. When they learnt that her husband had set fire to her clothes, OIC Hiniduma Police station, was informed about the incident. Following the message, OIC Hiniduma Police Station, Ranjith Munasinghe launched an investigation in to the incident. But attempts to trace Wasantha at his home proved futile.

Police then summoned Wasantha’s mother to the Hiniduma police to make a statement about the incident. But then the mother informed police that her son had left home that day with his child.

On the same morning on August 4 around 8.15 a.m., when Chaturangani and Kusuma went to pluck tea leaves at nearby tea plot they witnessed a child and a man hanging from a near by tree.

It was an awful scene that instilled fear in their minds. After witnessing the gruesome scene Chaturangani along with Kusuma hurriedly went home and informed her father about it. Later OIC Hiniduma Police station, Chief Inspector Munasinghe visited the scene with a police party and identified the two bodies with the help of the villagers.

The Baddegama Magistrate Wijeweera visited the scene and ordered the JMO Karapitiya hospital to hold the post mortem examination and report facts to Courts. According to Hiniduma Police, it was a case of murder and suicide. Wasantha had first hanged his daughter Sewmini and later committed suicide by hanging himself with a sarong due to disillusionment.

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