The sad fate that befell Milinona

By Ananda Agalakada

It all began when a resident of Yatiyantota , named Nimal got a whiff of a bad odour emanating from a wayside bush while he was walking back home after a visit to the Yatiyantota town.

At first he thought it was a rotten smell emanating from a dead animal, but the stench was nauseating and this gave rise to suspicion in Nimal's mind. Nimal was not in a position to check out what the stench was. After second thoughts he decided to inform the police. The Police station was not far away. He decided to walk over and tell the officers what he experienced and get it out of his conscience.

The Yatiyontata police acting on the information provided by Nimal went immediately to the spot and without much ado located the half decomposed body of Milinona who was said to be 65-years. She was a resident of Yatiyanyota Ihalapolagama.

She had two sons. Her husband had died when her sons were young, since then she had lived undergoing many difficulties. But Milinona was not a woman to easily give up and always worked hard to nurture her two sons. Every day she worked without complaint to make ends meet.

However, Milinona was not discouraged. Although difficulties kept mounting Milinona never resorted to begging. It was always hard work for her.

Day by day she engaged in hard labour to earn for her family. As time went by she saved some of her earnings for future use. One day she decided to start a small business, lending money for those who needed quick cash in the village. She charged interest for the money she lent and after some time found that it was a lucrative business. Slowly she began to build the business and the profits were gradually rising.

The three suspects

Although this business brought in enough money for Milinona, it had its negative side. The villagers were quick to obtain money from her at times of difficulty, at most times were reluctant to pay back on time. Money lending was quite an attractive business in the village as most were poverty stricken. To meet urgent requirement they did not have many options of getting the money. They sought solace from Milinona who lent money at an exorbitant rate of interest.

In the long run this practise brought Milinona a lot of enemies as well. Some of the villagers were envious of Milinona and did not look kindly at Milinoma’s meteoric rise- from a person who could not afford three decent meals for a day for her and her two sons into being a wealthy money lender, by village standards.

Many were the l times she had obtained the help of the Police when she faced difficulties in recovering the money she lent. But Milinona was resourceful and ruthless with her rough, rustic upbringing. She at almost all the time recovered the money she lent with interest. She had delved into another business, dealing in rubber sheets. She purchased rubber sheets from the villagers and sold it to wholesalers in town with a profit.

One day she had lodged a complaint with the Yatiyantota police against two youth for stealing some rubber sheets from her mother’s house. The two youth had been severely warned by the police over the incident.

These two youth from that time onwards harboured a grudge against Milinona. A few days after this incident, the two suspects had seen Milinona on her way home from the town. The time w late evening while the sun was going down and the darkness was slowly creeping and no one was around. There was a barren place covered with bush.The two angry men then had a heated argument with Milinona. This had developed like wild fire as Milinona too started screaming at them with some rough words. A line had been crossed and the two became violent. They began to attack her with some stones.

Milinona lay in a pool of blood after the attack had severely wounded her head. The two attackers began to search the unconscious Milinona. They found her purse and took twelve thousand rupees which was inside the wallet.They took off her ring as well. Then they pulled the lifeless body of her into the bush.The relatives of Milinona had made a complaint that she had gone missing. However, the Police began to find her they could not find her for four days. It is the smell of the decomposed body which a villager felt after a few days which led to the discovery of Milinona’s corpse.

The police said that they arrested three suspects including a brother of one of the two suspects. The police had recovered twelve thousand rupees and receipt of the pawning ring which belong to Milinona. One of them had bought a video player after pawning the ring of Milinona. The crime OIC Ananda and a police team are conducting further investigation on the instruction of OIC IP Asela Herath of Yatiyantota police.