Untold misery strikes family

By Ananda Agalakada

The guiding force behind children is their parents. It is a tragedy when children lose their parents and it is worse when tragedy strikes due to petty reasons such as suspicion.

We unravel the tale of Shammugan Shantha, a village damsel from Trincomalee. She survived many calamities as a child. Poverty and terrorism plagued their lives. Her childhood was not a pleasant one. Because of poverty her school career had been short-lived. She struggled to get trough a decent education but she was determined that she will somehow pull it off. However, even after her marriage to Ramu she had to suffer a lot because her husband did not earn enough and she did everything to make ends meet.

However, her motto in life was to survive. She strived to make ends meet from childhood. Going through severe hardships because of terrorism, life in the East was not rosy. But life had to go on irrespective of what happened around them.

When she was 18 she married Ramu Manmohan who was 33 years old. They had five children, two daughters and three sons. Ramu was a labourer. Although Ramu was nearly double her age she respected and aored him. He strived hard to make ends meet. He hardly had a full night's sleep. Many were the days when he did not have a regular meal. However, Ramu understood the realities of life and how to live in society.

He looked at life with his wife and children with a lot of expectations. Ramu often sacrificed his needs for his family.

He took life as it came. He worked hard to feed and fend for his family. They as a family were content for quite awhile till the children reached the age of maturity.

Shammugan Shantha too never despised her husband because he was poor. She looked after the children and respected Ramu as a husband. She always tried hard to remain a faithful wife and took pride in her family. She did everything within her means to improve their lot but still could not help her family as she wanted to. She made all attempts to educate her children and send them to school in trying conditions.

There were times that the children went to school without a morning meal. Then she would do something and prepare a decent afternoon meal for them so that they would not go hungry the whole day. She encouraged them to be self reliant in whatever way they could so that they need not go begging and showed them the way to manage with what they had.

In this backdrop, a phone call from the China Bay police perturbed the family. The caller was an official from the Trincomalee Hospital who reported the gruesome news of the death of a woman under suspicious circumstances. The deceased was none other than Shammugan Shantha. Police commenced investigations on the death of the woman.

Murder

It was then that the news of the gruesome murder came to light. Ramu had lately suspected his wife of having an illicit affair. The peaceful family life had gradually turned into an inferno with daily brawls becoming the order of the day. Unfounded suspicion in Ramu's mind kept brewing and he constantly kept assaulting his wife for no rhyme or reason. However much she tried to handle the situation she was unsuccessful.

The love and respect she had for Ramu was gradually dwindling. Residents say that although they had heard loud quarrels between the duo they had never seen Shammugan Shantha keeping company with any other man. They had never seen Shantha talk to outsiders. Most often she kept to herself and was carrying on with her household chores.

He began to suspect his wife at every turn and accused her of having an extra marital relationship under his very nose but Shantha vehemently denied having such an affair.

But it was to no avail, he continue to harass and abuse her and Shantha was very upset about these unfounded suspicions and allegations and was often in a thoughtful mood not knowing how to prove her innocence

On that fateful day Ramu woke up at about 4.30 am. His volcanic mind could not take it any more. It was seeking nothing, but vengeance. He was contemplating what action he could take to punish his wife, who according to him was being unfaithful.

The villain in Ramu was getting the better of him. In a sudden fit of rage Ramu had grabbed the axe he used to chop firewood and swooped on his wife who was fast asleep. He had mercilessly hacked his wife in a frenzy forgetting all human feelings and his children who will now suffer without a mother.

Although the neighbours rushed her to the Trincomalee Hospital with the assistance of their children she was pronounced dead on admission to hospital.

The OIC of China Bay police, Abeyratne Bandara and his officers pursued the alleged murderer Ramu, but for the first two days they could not find any information about him. Two days after the demise of Shammugan Shantha, the China Bay police phone rang yet again breaking the news of the whereabouts of Ramu.

Ramu had decided to take his own life by leaping into the farm well.

According to police, Ramu had turned out to be a killer because of the suspicion he had about his wife and as time went by these suspicions were fermenting in his head and he was becoming uncontrollable. Shouting at his wife, then abusing and being nasty to her.

Nasty

He had even turned nasty towards his children and began scolding them. The police later revealed that Ramu had quarrelled with his wife many times. The eldest son was 20 years and the youngest was seven years when their parents died.

The youngest boy was shocked at the turn of events and could not comprehend what happened to his mother and father. His older siblings were tying to explain to him so that he could come to terms with the loss of both parents.

However, now the children have no one to take care of them. A few weeks after their parents death, Shammugam had promised the neighbours that she would look after the children and take good care of them because she too could not come to terms with what had happened to the once happy family.

The 20-year-old boy was employed in the cement company in Trincomalee and the second daughter was married to a driver. The two of them had also agreed to contribute whatever they could to upkeep the younger siblings as they had to attend school and had a few more years to complete.

It was the youngest boy who was sobbing calling out to his parents as he just could not understand what had happened to them in such a short space of time.

Their step-mother had undertaken to look after the other three children who were studying at the Sarasota School in Trincomalee.