Mother commits suicide with younger daughter, elder daughter survives to tell the tale:

A heart-rending tragedy

By Ananda Agalakada

A heart- rending tragedy of how a mother killed herself and ended the life of her two-year-old daughter by jumping in front of a moving train, is a telling indictment of the tragedy that has befallen our times. Two innocent lives were lost because a family could not sort out issues that confronted them. On that Saturday night, Manjula Erandi Priyashanthi lay in her bed wondering and in confusion, unable to sleep, because her hopes for a bright future were shattered. An owl was hooting in the distance as signifying a bad omen. She looked around the bed room. The windows and doors were shut tight. She wept in the dark nestling her two daughters, confused and afraid.

Manjula was suffering from a long standing family dispute which had drained her strength and hope. She feared for the future of her two small daughters. She had tried hard to solve the problems she and her family faced but to no avail. On that fateful Saturday night she had finally taken a decision which she thought would end her misery.

But it was a deadly decision as she had decided to take her life. She may have thought long and hard to come to such a drastic decision. She may have thought that there was no future for her daughters without her. She may have decided to take them with her to the next world, which she may have thought would be kinder to her and her children

The 32-year-old Manjula resided in Pannala, Horawadunna with her husband and two daughters. She was a teacher at “Sumaga” primary school in Pannala.

The nine-year-old Charunya Sandamini Jayashantha was her eldest daughter and two-year-old Viraji Uthpala Jayashantha was her youngest. Indika Neil Jayashantha, 37, was her husband and he was working in a garment factory in Giriulla as an executive officer.

OIC of Veyangoda police M.D.S.C. Newnhella	H.M.H.GD. Herat, Veyangoda station master

The eldest daughter Manjula recalls, “on that fateful day my sister and I went with my mother on our motor-bike. We went towards Bowatta and Mother was riding at high speed which she would never do on other days. Later she stopped the bike at a hotel in Bowatta junction. We had breakfast there. After leaving the bike at the junction we got on a bus from Bowatta to go to Giriulla.

“My mother told us we were going to our uncle’s house in Mihirigama. So we got down to Giriulla and got onto another bus from there to go to Mihirigama. After getting off at Mihirigama she bought five packets of tipi tip biscuits and three packets of milk as well as some tablets.

I was confused because my mother usually does not buy so many biscuit packets or milk on other days.

Later we got on the train and she bought tickets from the Mihirigama station to Gampaha. However, we never went to Gampaha and we got off at the Keenawela station. She went to a house with us near the Keenawela station because I wanted to use the toilet at that time. While we were returning, my mother told me that the train was coming and we must get on the train”.

“The next thing I knew was mother was running towards the oncoming train, clutching me and my sisters . She held my hands in a tight grip. My heart leapt with fear and I shouted to mother that a train was coming. But she did not hear me. She kept on running towards the train clutching our hands tighter. However, when the train came closer, her grip slackened and I jumped out of the railway track. I saw Mother jumping in front of the oncoming train with my sister. I was in shock. As soon as the train knocked my mother and sister it came to a grinding halt”.

Then I saw my sister lying in a pool of blood on the side of railway track. I carried her in my hands but I could not see my mother’s face as it was severely injured.

After that I carried my sister and shouted appealing for help. Then many of uncles and aunts and police uncles rushed towards me.

They took my sister to hospital and my mother’s lifeless body was taken into the train. I then went to the Veyangoda station in the same train. Aunty Sandamali had come to see us and she told me that my sister would be okay soon. Later I came to my grandmother’s house with aunty Sandamali

“Why did your mother do such thing?” The aunt had then questioned Charunya. “I wanted to know the reason for my sister to take such a drastic step. Charunya said that her mother was all the time being harassed by my father, grandmother and my father’s sister. “On some days they assaulted my mother after putting her on the ground”, Charunya said.

On that day she was teaching me from a grade five question paper. Suddenly all of them came and began quarrelling with my mother. They snatched my mother’s talisman with the necklace which was around her neck. After that my grandfather began hitting her on her head with a torch” Charunya said.

OIC of Veyangoda police M.D.S.C. Newnhella said,” I got an anonymous telephone call about the incident. After that I called 119 and clarified the incident. Then I understood that this had happened over a family dispute. H.M.H.GD. Herat, station master of the Veyangoda station said “ The body of the woman was handed over to us. The tragedy had occurred when she jumped in front of the moving Yaldevi train when it was coming towards the Keenawela station.

On that day we were on alert as the train was getting late and we came to know about the incident. The eldest child was taken by her aunt at the Veyangoda station”.

I saw some uncles rushing towards me but after that I could not remember anything. People told me that I had fainted. Later I came to know that my mother and sister had died”.

Charunya said that her mother had attempted to jump in front of the train on three occasions but that because she had shouted her mother was prevented from jumping in front of the moving trains. On the last occasion her mother had just run towards the train and without looking back leapt in front of the moving train tugging onto hers and her sister’s hands.

Manjula’a husband, Neil Jayashantha told the inquest it was his wife and second daughter who had died in the tragedy. He said they were married for 11 years and that his wife and two children had lived with him in his house. “My parents resided near my house in their premises. The day before the incident I returned home after work. Around 6.30 in the evening I went to the town and returned home only at about 9.00 pm .After a few minutes I went to my parent’s home with my second daughter. While I was in my parent’s house my wife came and began a quarrel with me over some matter.

Returning home we went to bed after dinner. On the next day, very early in the morning I was confused because my wife was getting ready to go somewhere with my two daughters. And I questioned her as to where she was going. She told me she would go to her parent’s house and she left with the daughters on her motorbike.

However, I was suspicious over her actions so I called her to ask where she was. She told me over the phone that she was in Kurunegela at that time. After a few minutes once again I asked again where she was? Then she told me she was at the railway station” her husband said. She however told me “‘I will not return home after this”

Later I left for the railway station in Mihirigama. While I was at the Mihirigama station I got a call from an officer from Veyangoda station telling me that a woman had jumped in front of a moving train with her two daughters and that one of them had escaped while the other was dead. He told me that they might be my wife and daughter. I could not believe what I heard over the phone and I promptly left for the Veyangoda station. Later I identified the bodies as those of my wife and daughter”. JMO of the Wathupitiwela hospital, S.P.P. Gunawardene carried out the post mortem.