Village beauty's love leads to mother’s death

By Ananda Agalakada

An eerie scream tore through the silence of the night as two youth attempted to strangle Kandaiya Sellamma who was a virtuous, hardworking woman who loved life and did everything to make life happy for herself and her family, even though she was poverty-stricken. Sellamma was in her eighties but was agile and got about her daily chores without any problem.

Sellamma's daughter, Rangeshwari, was a beauty. Her almond-shaped eyes were covered with dark, long lashes and had sharp features.

A pottu was always glistening in the centre of her forehead just like her mother's.

Friendship

Rangeshwari was thin but had an hour-glass figure and carried herself with aplomb.

She went about her work as if she had no cares in the world. Rangeshwari regularly went to the well to collect water for the family. She was a sight to behold with the clay-pot filled with water placed on her hips and her hips swaying from side to side. Village men and women stopped in their tracks when she passed by just to have a glance at the beauty.

Rangeshwari was aware that she was the centre of attraction and would trek to the well as often as possible swaying her hips and pushing her braid of hair to a side which also swayed to the same rhythm as her hips.

It was on one of these ‘expeditions’ that she struck a friendship with a no-do-gooder of the area.

Rangeshwari did not for a moment doubt the man. He painted a rosy picture and cajoled Rangeshwari to marry him.

Rangeshwari did not think that this man was going to take her for a good ride. She believed every word that Thangamani, her husband-to be uttered to her.

They planned to elope because her mother, Sellamma who was made of sterner stuff knew full well that Thangamani will leave her daughter in the lurch and disappear.

Sellamma vehemently opposed Rangeshwari's choice and tried to drive sense into her daughter but to no avail.

Rangeswari was star-struck with her lover and thought come hell or high water “I am going to marry this man and live with him”.

She stealthily planned to leave her home at the break of dawn when her mother and father were fast asleep and dead to the world.

Rangeswari put the few clothes in her possession into a ‘ siri siri’ bag and left home to keep the rendezvous with her lover at the corner of the road.

He was overjoyed that Rangeshwari had adhered to his request.

The two of them then went away to a far-off village but now Rangeshwari realised that her wedded husband was not the rich man he posed to be and could not afford to take care of her. So she thought the next best step was to steal the little jewellery her mother had in her possession and sell the gold to make ends meet.

She was wracking her brains as to how she should get about it.

Her mother, Sellamma had a valuable gold chain given to her by her mother a pair of sovereign gold bangles and a jangling pair of earrings. Sellamma, clung to these possessions because she felt that this was all she had as worldly possessions.

Sellamma did not even trust the banks. She kept the bits of her jewellery in her possession. Rangeshwari knew her mother had this jewellery with her and she organised two youth from the area, Kadirgamar Thambi (24), and Prabhakaran Rajendram(22) to steal the jewellery from her mother. These two youth stealthily entered Sellamma's house while she was asleep and began searching for the jewellery because they were sure that the jewellery was kept hidden somewhere in the house, but their attempts to find the jewellery proved futile. They could not find the jewellery and they were getting agitated, in the rush Sellamma woke up and saw the two men hovering inside the house.

Sellamma then raised cries when the two youth attempted to strangle her.

Meanwhile, one of the two youth who was armed with a pole dealt a fatal blow on Sellamma's head. She collapsed instantly and began to bleed. The suspects ran away taking away Rs. 16,500 which Sellamma had in her possession.

It was later found that by the time she was taken to hospital she had succumbed to the injury.

Police were of the view that Sellamma may have nursed suspicions that her daughter was after her jewellery because all the jewellery was found tied to one of her thighs.

Kinniya police rushed to the scene on a tip off given by a neighbour. The post mortem was conducted by the Judicial Medical Officer of the Trincomalee district hospital.

The OIC of the Trincomalee police IP H.A.A.D. Ranasinghe and a police team arrested the suspects.

They had in their possession a blood stained torch which they had carried with them when they committed the dastardly act.