A brutal double murder

by Ananda JAYASENA -Senior Superintendent ofPolice (Rertd.)

In 1966, the Officer-In-Charge of Aluthgama Police Station was Inspector H.L. Piyasena. He was an excellent police officer, soft spoken but at the same time, a terror to criminal elements. During his period, crime in the area dropped drastically. He never ever gave into politicians, avoided them as much as possible, and always helped the poor. During this period an ex-police constable named Selvin had been elected as the Village Council Chairman, and as IP Piyasena did not care a rap for him, the ex-PC thought of a way to get him out of Aluthgama. What the Chairman did was to fake a few housebreaking and theft cases, in Moragolla, and he got IP Piyasena transferred out of aluthgama to Panadura. This was done with the connivance of a senior police officer in Kalutara, who was a friend of the Chairman, and who had been constables together. Inspector Piyasena was replaced by Inspector Carlyle Dias at Aluthgama.

Inspector Dias was a man of high principles. He knew why IP H.L. Piyasena, who was a very hardworking officer, was transferred out. He also did not like to take charge of Aluthgama Police Station due to political interference. From the day he was transferred to Aluthgama he was trying his very best to get out of Aluthgama, and after only 7 months he got a transfer out of Aluthgama and yours truly who was OIC Wadduwa, was brought down as OIC Aluthgama.

During the tenure of Inspector Dias, the area was neglected a lot, as he was more keen on going out of Aluthgama than staying. Just before IP Piyasena went on transfer, a case of double murder had been reported from Aluthgama.

The gist of the murder case was as follows: One Keswara Jinendradasa who was a native physician was carrying on a practice at Aluthgama. His dispensary was downstairs, and he resided with a small boy of about eight years upstairs. Jinendradasa had been an ex-Buddhist priest. He had a fair knowledge of Ayurvedic treatment and also on the sly, he performed abortions. For this, the services of a retired government female attendant was obtained. These abortions were not done scientifically, but what they did was to introduce the stem of a castor plant through the cervix into the uterus, and dislodged the foetus.

Ayurvedic doctor Jinendradasa was not considered a good man. He had no friends. He was envious of everyone. Also he had the habit of sending petitions against all and sundry. So much so that, if the postman got a letter wet in a sudden shower of rain, and handed it over to him, a petition would be sent to the Postmaster against the postman.

The building which he occupied belonged to one Martin Perera, a fairly rich person. Perera disliked Jinendradasa, as he had filed several cases in the Conciliation Board, Rent Control Board and in courts against him.

Martin Perera was a man of means. He was 48 years of age, married, had two girls, and his residence was about a mile away from the town. He owned a few shops in the town, and his office was also in one of these shops. His business was buying and selling property.

During his younger days, he had served in the Army as a Sergeant in the RASC and had been away from the country for about three years, fighting in foreign countries. It was rumoured that he was in possession of a 45 calibre Smith and Wesson unlicensed revolver. Some of his friends had found that he was a homosexual though married, and a boy of 18-20 years from Colombo, visited him often at his place of work.

On the night of this double murder, it had been raining in torrents and some shops in the town had been submerged other than the CWE which was about 50 yards from Ayurvedic doctor Jinendradasa’s house.

Injuries

According to the notes of Inspector Piyasena, entrance into the premises had been gained by removing two of the planks of the dispensary door. The door to which a staple was originally fixed had been cut, most probably with a hacksaw blade, and two planks of the door had been removed. Jinendradasa had been shot twice and the two bullets had entered from the right side of the body, and one was lodged in a floating rib, whilst the other had exited from the body. IP Piyasena had found the two spent cartridges, one close to the body of the fallen Jinendradasa, the other at the centre of the hall. Both these spent cartridges had been taken as productions by IP Piyasena. According to his notes of inquiry, the small boy had been shot on his left ear at a very close range, as there were burnt gun powder marks and marks of singing close to his left ear.

The post mortem examination on the two dead bodies had been held inside the same building by Dr. B.C. Perera, JMO Kalutara. According to the crime file, there had been two shots fired at Jinendradasa - one shot had gone through the body, and the slug had fallen outside, the second bullet had been embedded in a floating rib, and both these slugs had been taken charge of as productions. The cause of the death had been given as death due to gun shot injuries, most probably from a pistol. The second dead body had been found upstairs, by an open window, fallen on the ground. He was a well built boy, aged about 9-10 years, and the weapon of the offence appeared to be the same as the one which caused the first death.

Finger print

The lethal weapon had not been recovered, and the police dogs which had been summoned by IP Piyasena had been of no use. Also the fingerprint experts too happened to be of no use, as they had not found any decipherable prints at the scene.

I made confidential inquiries on my own. It appeared that everyone in the town had now forgotten this murder, but the young boy Saman, Perera’s friend, had not come to this town since the murder, but had been meeting his girlfriend in Kalutara South, where she comes for her tuition classes.

I spoke to my SP W.P. (South,) about this case, and obtained permission to detail two officers from my station who had originally been assigned to this case. PC 1712 Thilakaratna had earlier worked in the CID and the SP granted permission. PC 1808 Seneviratne, who had worked in the Crimes branch of several Police Stations earlier, was also detailed for this inquiry. They were to report to me about the progress of the case daily.

After three days, PC 1712 Thilakaratna told me that he had received credible information to the effect that suspect Martin Perera’s boy, Saman, came at times to meet his girl friend at a tutory in Kalutara.

As this double murder had taken place about eight months ago, suspect Martin Perera now moved freely in the village, but Saman had not been sighted at Aluthgama since that day.

I went to the office of the SP WP South at Kalutara, met him, and got his permission to send a WPC in mufti to the Kalutara tutory from 2.00 pm onwards, under the pretext of learning English. This was allowed. The youngest WPC at Aluthgama at that time was WPC 864 Chandralatha, who did office work at Aluthgama.

Arrangements were made to enter Chandralatha at the tutory from the following Monday, and she was told to be friendly with a girl named Kanthi Almeida, and to get all information from her about Saman Santiago.

Time went by WPC Chandralatha and Kanthi were now good friends. They travelled from Aluthgama to Kalutara and back after tuition in the same bus. After about 10 days Kanthi had asked Chandralatha whether she would join her to go to the zoo next Saturday, as she had made arrangements to go with Saman, and she readily agreed. Chandralatha had already been introduced to Saman by Kanthi, and Chandralatha had met Saman about four times by now.

Arrangements had been made by Kanthi to meet Chandralatha at 8.30 am on the appointed date, close to the tutory, and both of them were to go to Kalutara Bodhiya where Saman would be waiting for them. This information was passed to me by Chandralatha and I summoned Thilakaratna and Seneviratne to my office.

We hatched a plan. There was a private hiring car driver named Charlie who was good with the Police. He had an Austin Cambridge car. Word was sent for Charlie to get ready for a hire to go to Kalutara at 7.00 am.

The WPC was to show Saman to PC1808 Seneviratne, and she was to mingle with the crowd, not to be seen by Saman. Charlie was to stop the car close to the clock tower, facing the direction of Galle. P.C. Seneviratne was to go to Saman, and to request him to help to push the car, as the engine of the car would not start.

On the appointed date, Saman had come to Kalutara Bodhiya and was standing near the entrance to the dagoba. PC Seneviratne came to Saman and requested him to give a push to the car as it would not start. Both of them came up to the car, and Seneviratne all of a sudden pushed Saman into the car, who was grabbed by PC Thilakaratna who was seated in the rear seat.

The door was banged shut and Seneviratne too got into the car, and the car sped to Aluthgama Police Station with Saman. WPC Chandralatha went to the tutory, joined Kanthi and came up to the Bo Tree and they searched for Saman. They were there till 10.00 am and they had decided to get back home, thinking that something had happened to Saman.

Saman was brought to Aluthgama Police Station at around 9.15 am and was put into cell No. 3. There were no other accused in the cell that day.

At around 5.00 pm Saman had asked PC Herbert who was on reserve duty as to why he was locked up. PC Herbert had replied that no innocent man would be locked up and that he could see for himself in the night as to why he had been locked up in a solitary cell.

PC Herbert passed this information to me. I came to the Police Station, took the suspect out of the cell and brought him to my office. PC 1712 Thilakaratna and PC 1808 Seneviratne were there. I got PS 4777 Ariyadasa to record Saman’s statement whilst I questioned him.

At around 8.30 pm suspect Saman Santiago broke down and admitted having come with the accused to murder the two victims. In his statement, he stated that he was Saman Prasad Santiago of No. 27/1, Quarry Road, Dehiwala, and got through his SSC (English) Examination. He had been introduced to Martin Perera by a friend of his named Shirley about a year ago, Martin Perera had promised him a job in a foreign country.

Registered letter

According to Saman Santiago, four days before the murder, Mrs. Martin Perera had received a registered letter, with a false sender’s address. The contents of the letter had been that Martin Perera was having homosexual dealings with Saman, and had suggested that his eldest daughter be given in marriage to Saman, so that Martin Perera could possess Saman for the rest of his life. Over this letter, they had quarrelled, and Mr. Perera had attempted to commit suicide twice, but failed.

On the day of the murder, both Martin and Saman saw a 9.30 pm film show at Kalutara, and came to Martin’s office at around 1.00 am. It was raining in torrents at the time. Both of them wore raincoats and came to the dispensary of Jinendradasa, and removed the planks of the door to which the staple was fixed.

This was done using a hacksaw blade. After the door was opened, both of them went upstairs. Jinendradasa was fast asleep. He was awakened, and Martin Perera asked him why he had sent a registered letter to his wife. Jinendradasa vehemently denied having sent her a letter. At this stage, Martin Perera drew the revolver from his raincoat pocket and fired two shots at Jinendradasa at close range, and when they were about to come out, Martin Perera saw that the boy had awakened and was looking at them. Martin Perera ran up to the boy, raised him up, thrust the nozzule of the revolver against his ear and fired. They returned and Martin applied some grease on the revolver, wrapped it up in polythene and put it in a small bucket and buried it by the side of his office. Then he planted two small cuttings of a tree on top of it.

After recording Saman’s statement I contacted SI Neil Ratnayake, a batchmate of mine, who worked at the registrar of Finger Print’s Office, and told this story to him and requested him to send two officers to Aluthgama Police Station on the following morning to finger print the revolver and to photograph, if prints were found.

Early morning on the following day, two officers from RFP dropped in at the Aluthgama Police Station. I took both of them, to the accused who was in our custody, and Sergeant Ariyadasa to the scene. Saman showed us the place where the revolver was buried. The cutting of the plant which they had planted on top of the pit had started growing.

The place was dug, and the revolver along with the bucket was removed and brought to the Police Station, were dusted and photographed.

There were two prints and half of a palm print on the butt of the revolver.

The same were dusted and photographed, and the two Police Constables took the photographs of the prints to the RFP.

The revolver was kept by us in custody. Saman Santiago was remanded to Fiscal custody. We went to the house of Martin Perera. He was present.

The charge against him was explained to him, and he was taken into custody.

His statement was recorded, and he denied any knowledge of the murders whatsoever. He was produced in MC Kalutara, and I moved Courts to forward his finger and palm prints to the office of the RFP to compare with the photographs taken from the butt of the revolver.

Four days later, the RFP informed that the finger prints and the palm print found at the butt of the revolver were identical with that of suspect Martin Perera.

On the next Court date, I gave evidence in Courts and moved Courts to forward the revolver produced by me in Courts to be sent to the office of the Government Analyst to compare and report with the empty cartridges forwarded to Courts in this connection by Inspector Piyasena earlier.

In the same month, the Government Analyst reported to Courts that the empty cartridges found at the scene had been fired from the revolver produced at the Courts. After a lengthy trial in MC Kalutara, this case was committed to Assizes. When this case was taken up for the trial at the Court of Assize, Kalutara the State Counsel informed his Lordship that the Attorney-General had made the second accused Saman Santiago a Crown Witness.

The first witness to be called was Dr. B.C. Perera JMQ Kalutara. He stated that he had held the postmortem examination on both dead bodies, and that both had died of gunshot injuries, caused by a revolver fired at close range.

The second witness to be called was the Government Analyst. He stated that he had examined the revolver produced in Courts, and that the two empty cases found at the scene had been fired by this very revolver.

The Registrar of Finger Prints was the third witness. He stated that he had examined the revolver, and that there were two identical finger prints, and one palm print of the accused Martin Perera, on the butt of the revolver. The fourth witness to be called was Saman Santiago.

He made a detailed description of what had happened on that fateful night, and as to how the revolver was buried, and later recovered by the Police after he made his statement. He was cross-examined by the defence at length, but his evidence was unshakable.

Inspector Piyasena gave his evidence. After that your’s truly gave his evidence, and the crown closed the scene for the prosecution.

The defence did not call any witness.

The Jury brought an unanimous verdict of `Guilty’ and his Lordship sentenced the accused to be hanged.

The accused appealed against this conviction, but the Court of Appeal Judges confirmed the conviction.

(Names of accused and the deceased are fictitious. Others are genuine)