Family dispute ends in killings

By Jayampathy JAYASINGHE

Several men armed with knives stormed into a house at Nilwella, in the Dickwella area under the cover of darkness and chopped to death a mother (43) and her 15-year-old daughter who had gone to sleep in their home adjacent to Issabell House hotel. The gruesome incident took place on July 8. The cold-blooded killing had been carried out by hired assassins who had been promised a sum of Rs 500,000, police said.

The brutal killings came as a shock to many who lived at Nilwella, a peaceful fishing hamlet in the Dickwella area. On that fateful night the neighbours heard the screams and yelling of the mother while being set upon by assassins and attacked them mercilessly with knives. The incident took place around 9.p.m. Someone in the neighbourhood who heard the loud commotion in the house telephoned the Dickwella police station after a long duration of time.

By then the assassins had fled the house. The OIC Dickwella police station who arrived at the home with a police party found the blood soaked bodies of both the mother and her daughter lying in their rooms. The daughter’s body was found partly on the bed with her legs stretched out towards the floor. Severe cut injuries were found on her face and the body. “It appeared that she had struggled a lot while being cut with knives” police said. Her mother’s body was also found lying on the ground in a pool of blood near her bed. They had been hacked to death with swords and knives by unknown assassins, police said.

Police identified the deceased as Udeni Renuka Damayanthi (43) and her 15-year-old daughter Sasanthika Ratnayake Wijesinghe, a student of a school at Dickwella.

It became clear to police that the brutal killings were linked to a property dispute. The deceased woman Renuka Damayanthi have had a dispute with the Italian national and his young wife living at the Issabell hotel. Renuka Damayanthi and her daughter Saduni Sasanthika Wijesinghe lived in the same compound in a house built by a foreigner. It was further revealed that the Italian national had a clandestine affair with Udeni Renuka Damayanthi (43) after his arrival in the country during the post tsunami period. Although she was a married woman with a grown up daughter she came to live with the foreigner at Nilwella hotel after deserting her husband. The estranged husband had made several complaints at the Dickwella police station regarding his wife’s malicious desertion, police said.

It was further revealed that the foreigner (62) having lived with Udeni Renuka Damayanthi for many years finally distanced himself from her and married a young girl (25) from Kirinda, a village in the deep south, a few years ago. The couple thereafter lived at the Issabell hotel at Nilwella to the resentment of Udeni Renuka Damayanthi. She lived in a house in the same compound.

It was disclosed that the foreigner had built a house for Damayanthi and her daughter to live there. But there were constant quarrels between the foreigner’s wife and Damayathini relating to property matters. The quarrels often ended up at the Dickwella police station seeking police intervention. Around 10 complaints and counter- complaints have been lodged by both parties at the Dickwella police station.

Police had even filed a binding over application in courts to prevent a breach of the peace.

Udeni Renuka Damayanthi being a stakeholder of the Issabell hotel interfered in the administration of the hotel. The business at the Isabell hotel suffered a setback due to constant quarrels. But things began hotting up again. The foreigner’s young wife feared that her husband might reunite with Damayanthi his former lover and would divorce her. She is alleged to have informed her brother to find someone to finish off Damayanthi and her daughter so that they would not have any claim to the properties. Her brother in turn had informed his brother-in-law to find an assassin to do away with the mother and her daughter. The brother-in-law found hired assassins from Debarawewa -at Tissamaharamaya for the job. they had been paid a sum of Rs 10,000 initially by the Isabell hotel owners, police said.

SSP Matara Sumith Edirisinghe instructed OIC Dickwella police station Chief Inspector Nirosh Dharmasena to track down the killers. Sub Inspector P.G. Udyananda and others were able to track down the suspects at Deberawewa Tissamaharama. Police also recovered the fishing knives used in the killing which was dumped inside a pond at Tissamaharama. Police traced the three wheeler in which the assassins travelled to the Issabell hotel.

They also arrested the three wheeler driver. Already seven persons including the foreigner, his wife and those linked to the gruesome killing have been taken into custody. The Chief Magistrate Matara Udesh Ranatunga held the Magisterial inquiry.