Kotakethana killers torch two more women

One could not have imagined the number of murders that took place in Kahawatte-Kotakethana during the past few years where 14 women were butchered. Some bodies were even set ablaze to prevent identification and to eliminate evidence. What was shocking was that it happened at Kahawatte-Kotakethana area in the past two years. Working tirelessly the police were able to collect bits and pieces of evidence left by the perpetrators, that ultimately led to the arrest of the suspects. Despite the suspects being arrested the killing spree at Kahawatte continued up to the last week. In fact, a police post was set up only three weeks ago for the residents, a sense of security, Police said.

The killings at Kotakethana have been linked to valuable properties the women had possessed. Kahawatte being a area where precious gems are found, the suspects may have been motivated to grab the lands.

The latest spine-chilling murder took place at Kotakethana Kahawatte on July 19. A mother and her daughter were butchered and their bodies set ablaze in their own home. The suspects are still at large and IGP. N.K. Illangakoon had instructed the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) to apprehend them. The killers apparently had entered the house by breaking a window and escaped after killing the mother and her daughter. They had set the bodies ablaze. Finger-print experts have found several prints on the window.

Identified

The deceased ware identified as U.D. Premawathie, a 63-year-old woman and H.G. Pushpakumari, her 32-year-old daughter.When people in the Kotakethana noticed black smoke billowing into the sky from Premawathie's house, they rushed to the Kotakethana Police Post close by. Policemen along with some villagers rushed there to douse the flames but when they entered the house they found two charred bodies lying on a bed.

They were beyond recognition but people knew that it was mother and her daughter who lived alone in the home. The police said the suspect after killing the mother and her daughter had dragged their bodies into one room and set them ablaze by placing a mattress over their bodies and pouring some fuel. There were blood stains in the drawing room and the police believe the mother and her daughter had been hacked to death with a sharp cutting weapon. It was also revealed that the mother and her daughter had lived in separate rooms. An empty bottle of liquor and a packet containing some gram ware found in the adjoining coconut estate.

U.D. Premawathie, the mother and H.G. Pushpakumari, her daughter lived in a large estate at Kotakethana. Premawathie had four children, two sons and two daughters.

Her husband had died a few years ago and she continued to live with her unmarried daughter Pushpakumari who was employed at a pawn brokering shop at Kahawatte. Her sister and her brother were employed elsewhere in the country while her eldest married brother lived close to her home.Pushpakumari had returned home around 5 p.m. on July 18 after finishing her work at the pawn broking centre.

However, the motive for slaying has not yet been established and the assassin is still at large, The police said. It was revealed that on the day of the killing Pushpakumari had sent an SMS message to a colleague at her work place indicating that her life was in danger. Director, Criminal Investigations Department (CID), SSP Mahesh Perera has detailed a team to Kahawatte to conduct investigations in to the crime.Two years ago fear gripped the villages of Kotakethana Divulgala, Opatha, Kattange and Nilladuara areas where five elderly women were killed while at home.

The crimes had a similar pattern where the battered victims’ heads were wrapped with clothes to conceal the wounds. Crow bars and poles had been used to attack the women. However, all suspects linked to the murders have been arrested and the matter was now before courts, police said. On May 31, police dog Sheeba helped policemen to track down the killer of the two sisters at Kotakethana. The victims were identified as Tlikawathie (52) and her elder sister Dayawathie (61). The killer had set fire to the bodies before escaping. However, the sniffer dog Sheeba led the police right up to the doorstep of the suspect, a drug dealer. In February, the killing of a mother and her young daughter, a schoolgirl shocked the people of Kotakethana. They were hacked to death.

The deceased were identified as Nayana Nilmini (52) and her daughter Kavindi Chaturangi (18) a schoolgirl of Ferguson College, Ratnapura.

Her mother too had been a past pupil of the college. The killing came to light when some labourers collecting firewood at the Opatha rubber estate at Kahawatte discovered the naked body of a girl lying in the estate. A Pradeshiya Sabha member telephoned the Kahawatte police saying that Nayana Nilmini's body was found lying at her home at Kotakethana. Her body had been covered with a bedsheet. She too had been hacked to death with a sharp cutting weapon, police said. The killer later dumped Chaturangi's body in an abandoned rubber estate at Opatha four kilometres away.