Five year love affair ends in tragedy

They fell in love with each other the moment their eyes met in a fixed gaze at a function in Payagala almost five years ago. They were not bothered about their age gap although the man was fifty-five years and the woman only 31 years. Both had been married previously but had divorced due to differences.

He was a businessman from Kadawatha who yearned for the company of the attractive woman whom he wanted to possess. He was very possessive of her although it was a roller coster affair. The affair went on for five years and finally they decided to wed in January this year.

Following the marriage the husband went to live at his wife’s residence at Payagala. But before long their happiness was short lived due to frequent tiffs between them.

They started arguing with each other quite often. The husband was suspicious that his attractive wife was having an extra marital affair with another man. The mere suspicion sent him into a tail spin which he could not easily get over. Life went on like this for five months until the unbelievable happened. Even their acquaintances told police that their marriage was a mismatch due to age differences. They had noticed them quarrelling quite frequently.

Excursion

It was on May 24 when the couple went on an excursion to Nuwara Eliya to drown their sorrows and to turn over a new leaf in their lives. They had been planning this trip for some time. The couple set out from their Payagala residence on May 24 by bus and arrived at the Nuwara Eliya town in the evening. It was a bone chilling cold evening when they arrived at the Nuwara Eliya town.

The weather had plunged below 20 celsius degrees making them shiver. The couple immediately checked into a tourist hotel on the Badulla-Nuwara Eliya road, around 3.30 p.m. The hotel was situated nearly 500 metres from the Nuwara Eliya town. Around 5 p.m. that evening they summoned a trishaw from the Nuwara Eliya town and went on a shopping spree. The husband purchased a knife from a boutique saying that he needed it for his father-in-law’s almsgiving ceremony.

He also surreptitiously purchased a bottle of poison which he took to the hotel and hid in the hotel toilet.

The couple spent the night in the tourist hotel and on the following morning set out on a sight seeing tour to Devon Falls at Talawakelle in a trishaw which they hired. They took along with them a snack which they ordered from their hotel. Having visited picturesque sites they returned to the hotel at night.

Response

That couple then ordered dinner and slept at the hotel that night. On the following day (May 26) around 6.30 a.m. the husband came out of his room had informed a hotel employee that he was going to Nuwara Eliya town to attend to some business and requested an employee to take a cup of tea to the room where his wife was staying.

A waiter who went along with a pot of tea to serve the guest found the room locked.

Although he knocked several times on the door there was no response from the guest. The waiter then informed the other hotel staff and the manager about the locked room.

The hotel staff then rushed to the upper floor and knocked on the door but there was no response from the guest. The hotel employees feared that something would have happened to the guest.

The suspicion was confirmed when the husband failed to appear at the hotel.

On the same day a hotel employee named Vishawanathan lodged a complaint at the Nuwara-Eliya police station regarding a locked room. The OIC Crimes Nuwara Eliya Police station Inspector Karunaratne and other police officers visited the hotel to investigate the complaint.

The policemen knocked on the door several timebut still there was no a response.

By using a duplicate key the police opened the door.

When they entered the room they discovered the blood splattered body of a woman lying on the bed with her throat slashed with a knife.

The deceased was identified as Karunamuni Shirani, a resident of Gomarakande-Payagala. She was a mother of an eleven-year-old son.

When the matter was brought to the notice of Senior Superintendent of Police of the Nuwara Eliya Division Gamini Mathurata, he instructed the Head Quarters Inspector (HQI) of Nuwara Eliya Chief Inspector Kamal Ranaweera to arrest the suspect. On May 26 police found a man laying on the floor of the Nanu-Oya Railway station who had consumed some poison.

Later it became clear to the police that he was the suspect they were looking for in connection with the gruesome killing of his spouse.

Inquiry

The suspect was a resident of Nildiyasevana Kadawatte. He is the father of two sons and a daughter from an earlier marriage. The suspect was taken into custody and was admitted to the Nuwara Eliya hospital following the suicide attempt. Police said he was gasping for breath and was fighting for his life. The suspect was remanded till June 6 2011.

He will be again produced before the Nuwara Eliya Magistrate when the case is taken up tomorrow.

The Nuwara-Eliya acting Magistrate held the magisterial inquiry into the death of the woman. Later the post mortem examination was held by the Judicial Medical Officer Nuwara Eliya Dr. N.A.S.B. Wijeratne who found several cut injuries on the woman’s neck. OIC Crimes Inspector Abeysinghe and Sub Inspector Janaka Weeraratne are conducting inquiries.