CID arrests two over Seya’s murder
President to refer call to reintroduce death penalty to Parliament: [September 20 2015]

The Criminal Investigation Division (CID) has arrested two persons in connection with the harrowing rape and murder of the five- year- old girl, Seya Sadewmi, in Kotadeniyawa. The suspects were remanded till September 28 by the Minuwangoda Magistrate yesterday.

The men, residents of the same area, Akarangaha, Badalgama, have been identified as 18- year- old W.Suranjan Pradeep Seneviratne and 33-year-old Attanayaka Mudiyanselage Kelum Attanayake, a mason by profession.

They were among 30 others questioned in connection with the murder of the little girl. The Kotadeniyawa Police had also questioned the mother, father and her grandparents who had been in the house, the night she went missing.

The Police Spokesman’s Office said, the men have been arrested pending DNA test results. The police launched a search operation with the help of sniffer dogs after a complaint that little Seya was missing from home since the night of September 12. Later her lifeless body was discovered in a thicket about 300 metres away from her house. She was brutally raped and strangled using her nightwear.

The tragic incident outraged the country with protests being held in many areas demanding the immediate arrest of the culprits and the reintroduction of the death penalty against rapists. These calls also resulted in President Maithripala Sirisena making a statement that he would consult the Parliament shortly in reviving the death penalty.

IGP N.K.Illangakoon handed over the investigations into her killing to the CID on Wednesday(16). - MF