Did lovelorn soldier commit suicide?

Many love affairs between young women and married men have ended in disaster sometimes with either party committing suicide.

Unfortunately, many victims have been service personnel who have been involved in such tragedies, according to news reports.

The latest incident was reported on Tuesday when an army major disgruntled over a love affair which he had cultivated with a young girl committed suicide by detonating a live hand grenade inside the vehicle in which he travelled all the way to Thihagoda Ambagahalande to meet his beloved girl.

The incident took place on Tuesday morning a few metres away from the Ambagahalande police station when he blew himself with a grenade which he secretly smuggled out from the Army camp where he worked. Police identified the deceased Army Major as Nalin Sampath Kumara a battle hardened soldier, a native of Hiriyala in the Kurunegala district. He was a married man and a father of two children obsessed with a 17 year old girl with whom he cultivated a love affair although the girl had not seen him. Accidentally he came across her mobile number and he persistently telephoned her thereafter to win her heart.

The innocent girl not knowing that he was an elderly man with two children fell head over heels in love with him. The love affair between them continued for nearly five months and her parents were kept in the dark. They were unaware of what was happening that time. He was a 37-year-old man who held the rank of a major in the army training centre at Saliyapura. The unit belonged to the Gajaba regiment. He was an instructor who trained young army recruits who came under his wing.

Parents

Police said the girl may have met her lover on several occasions although she denied it to her parents. However when their love affair blossomed during such a short period the parents 'noticed her sudden change of attitude towards them.

The young girl who sat the G.C.E. Ordinary level examination kept to her own and her mood swings were noticeable to the parents.

Although she was a boisterous girl she was now subdued. Something seemed to bother her, the parents thought. But when they finally questioned her at length she broke her silence and confessed that she was in love with a Major in the Army. Her father too was a retired army sergeant major and she felt that it was her bounden duty to inform him about the major. Her father then made discreet inquiries and found that the Major was a married man with two children who had constant marital problems with his wife. The Major had intimated to her that he intends divorcing his wife in the near future.

The girl's father was furious when he learnt that he was a married person and admonished her to give up the affair forthwith. The young girl sobbed and cried and felt distressed over the whole thing. After all it was the first time that a man had come into her life. She was tender in age and did not realise the gravity of falling in love with a married man with children. Her father was a military man and was inquisitive to know how it all started. The girl then explained to her parents that a man spoke to her on her mobile phone and he became interested in her. He phoned her every day and she fell in love with him, she told her parents.

On the insistence of her parents she invited her lover to visit her home and meet her parents but did not say anything further. Sensing he was in trouble the Major told the girl to meet her about 300 metres from the Thihagoda police station in the Ambagahalanda area and told her that he was not willing to come home.

On September 18 the Major obtained a day's leave and travelled to Matara and then to Thihagoda to meet the girl. It was around 10.10 am when he arrived at Thihagoda in his vehicle. He drove past the police station and halted his vehicle about 300 metres from the Thihagoda police station and waited patiently for the girl.

A little later he saw the girl arriving, accompanied by her parents. According to police the girl's father had walked up to the vehicle and introduced himself as a retired Army Sergeant and as the girl's father. He told the Army Major that he came to know that he was a married man with two children and therefore was not interested in giving his daughter in marriage to him. The Army Major was bemused and apologised to the father profusely. The girl too made a pledge to her parents in the presence of the Army Major that she was willing to give up the affair on account of his marital status. Thereafter the girl accompanied by her parents left him at his vehicle and walked towards the direction of the police station.

Explosion

Before they left they saw the Army Major climbing back to his jeep thoroughly shaken up by what happened. A few minutes later the girl and his parents heard a sudden explosion from the direction of the vehicle. There was smoke coming out of the vehicle and passers-by gathered near the vehicle to see what happened. The Army Major lay dead inside his vehicle with his stomach portion ripped apart as a result of the blast. Police suspect that the Major would have committed suicide as he was distraught over the love affair. They also suspect that he would have blown himself with a foreign made hand grenade. However police is investigating whether a third party had lobbed a grenade to kill him.

The vehicle in which he travelled to the spot was registered in his name, police said. SSP Matara Deshabandu Tennakoon has instructed the OIC Matara Crimes Division to conduct further investigations.