Husband digs pit to bury daughter and wife alive:

Love life turns sour

By Ananda Agalakada

She was a beautiful damsel with raven, long hair braided and hung loosely around her neck. She had an olive tan complexion and her hour glass figure was the envy of all around. Her pink lips looked as if they had been made up but she was naturally blessed with these features. Her comely looks were the draw of all the other male employees but being a shy sort Janaki as a rule ignored all the men around her.

Janaki with her little infant

However, Ravindra was different. He was quiet and did not make much conversation with the other men. He was always to himself and Janaki observed this and admired it in a way. Janaki was married earlier and had two children by this marriage. “This man is so different to my former husband” she thought to herself but did not express her desire to anybody else.

One day just as she had wished Ravindra proposed to her and she was overjoyed. Janaki did not think twice . She accepted him with open arms. They met many times and went home together after work but her joy was short-lived as she found the man beginning to be indifferent. Janaki however dismissed it as a fiction of her imagination. She was really in love with the man and thought to herself that she had at last met her soul mate. They then decided to get married and lead a life as husband and wife. They moved into a tiny little house, just enough for the two of them in Ballenthalawa. They had a small get-together in celebration of the marriage. Soon Janaki was with child and was finding it difficult to cope with housework and going to work to the garment factory. She was having dizzy spells and was unable to consume any food. Even the little food she managed to eat she threw up but to her dismay she found that Ravindra was not helpful at all. He ignored her and began to scold her at every turn. He had also stopped going to work. Now they were facing hard times with no money in the house.

Janaki was 40- years- old and working in a garment factory in Panadura when she met Ravindra who also worked in the same factory two years ago.

Time passed by quickly and Janaki gave birth to a daughter. She was happy and she always dreamed about her daughter's bright future. Janaki knew they were confined to poverty with both of them being unemployed. Janaki advised Ravindra to build a new life after their daughter was born.

It was not long ago that Janaki got into trouble with her husband. Janaki's expectations were shattered and she was frustrated. As time went by, Ravindra could not give her what she needed. So things started to turn bitter between Ravindra and Janaki. But the problem was that there were just too many complications with regard to Ravindra who lived in an imaginary world.

By this time Janaki took her two children of her previous marriage to her new house. But Ravindra disliked them and drove them away from his house.

Now realisation dawned on Janaki. She struggled so much with what she thought was the right thing to tackle Ravindra and never got discouraged with the harassment she faced.

The pit dug in the centre of the house where the suspect wanted to bury his wife and infant daughter

The facade of the house where the pit was dug

Ravindra paid no attention to earn money to take care of his wife and little daughter. In this backdrop Janaki began to earn money to support her family by working in a grocery shop which belonged to her brother.

On that fateful day, Janaki did not sleep as she was assaulted by Ravindra many times in the day. She realised the fate that befell her. Ravindra had a sinister plan to bury her daughter and her in a grave dug in her own house and then maybe take his own life. Ravindra was keeping a close watch on her and there was no way that she could escape from him. He then held her in a vice like grip and tried not to allow her to get out of the house. She somehow told him a lie and crept through the barbed wire fence around her house and she came to the Millaniya police.

Later she lodged a complaint against Ravindra that he attempted to kill her and their little daughter by burying them alive. The police officers rushed to the house and they too were taken aback when they saw the damage committed by Ravindra in the centre of the house. He had dug a pit right in the middle of the house.

Ravindra did not know what a brutal act he was about to commit. When the police reached the house they saw Ravindra digging the pit which was about five feet in length, three feet in width and two feet deep. He also had tied a rope to the beam of the house with a noose.

By this time neighbour, Darshani Attapatthu told police “I wanted to dig a drain in my garden and I went to see Ravindra because I wanted to get his assistance. Then I saw a small hole in the middle of his house at that time.

“The following day I went to see Ravindra for another matter. Ravindra’s house was closed but I heard a sound like someone was digging a pit in the house. Through curiosity as to what was happening inside Ravindra’s house, I knocked on the door and opened it. Then I saw a huge hole resembling a grave. Later I questioned him what it was. Ravindra told me that he had dug the pit to bury his wife and daughter.”

Later I told him not to come ever again to my house and I left the place. She also told the police that Ravindra and Janaki usually had arguments with one another almost on a daily basis. But they ignored it because Ravindra was not an annoyance to the neighbours.

They did not want to interfere into their personal lives. The police said that when they entered the house they found a child crying on the bed. They also found equipment used to dig the pit including a sword under the mattress.

The police further said that the mother and daughter were hospitalised for medical investigation. Ravindra was arrested on suspicion and produced before the Horana magistrate.

The OIC of the women and children Bureau of the Millaniya police, sergeant Kanthi, WPC Manjula, PC Sunil Shantha and Amarathunga are conducting further investigations on the instruction of the OIC IP Udaya Karunaratne in Millaniya police.