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| Sunday, 03 August 2003 |
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Features |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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Death to the Fortunate by JAYAMPATHY JAYASINGHE The death of two lottery winners made headlines last week with several news reports speculating on the circumstances that led to their deaths. The strange coincidence was that the two persons who won lottery prizes, one by cheating and the other by sheer good luck, died while in police custody. Could the deaths have been prevented if more vigilance was exercised?. Of course there have been countless instances where people have died while in police and prison custody. Courts have punished some miscreants while others have escaped due to lack of evidence. But the deaths of lottery winners within a span of a few days does raise questions. The first death was reported from Millewa Moragahahena last week. The victim was Sunil Hemachandra (32) who won Rs. 3 million in a lottery last month. Earlier he had worked as a cleaner of a lorry in Millewa. Hemachandra was an uneducated man who did not know to write properly. But he was lavish enough to buy a van for his aunt and two wheeler scooters for his nephews. But he didn't live long enough to enjoy his financial windfall. His relatives allege he was beaten to death by the police. At about 12.15 p,m, on July 22, a police party from the Moragahanena police station had arrived in a jeep to the house of Piyawathie where Hemachandra and the driver of the van- Chanaka were sleeping. The police had come to arrest Chanaka, as there was a complaint made against him by his father who was also the lottery agent for Millewa. Hemachandra had purchased the winning ticket from him. Hemachandra vehemently protested against the arrest of Chanaka. He had even threatened to commit suicide if that happened. At this stage, a policeman had stepped forward and slapped Hemachandra several times. Both Hemachandra and Chanaka were later taken into custody. Hemachadra 's aunt Mrs. G. Gunawathie had later complained to ASP Nagahawatte that her nephew was taken into custody on trumped up charges. She even told him that the police officers had assaulted her nephew. When Gunawathie visited the Moragahahena police station the day after his, arrest she found her nephew bleeding from his nose and a froth like substance oozing from his mouth. When it was brought to the notice of the OIC, Moraganhahena Police B.A. Mahipala he had told her that it may have been due to a fall from an epileptic fit. The victim later succumbed to injuries at the Colombo National Hospital Hospital on July 24th. The Judicial Medical Officer who conducted the postmortem examination, had stated that death was due to injuries caused to the brain. Whether the death was due to a fall arising from an epileptic fit or from a blow leaves his relatives, friends and the public sceptical about Hemachandra's death. The Magisterial inquiry into the death of the lottery winner was taken up last Thursday before the Additional Magistrate Colombo, Mr. Ranjith Perera. The Police led evidence of several witnesses and produced the medical report. The court after studying the medical report found that death was due to an injury caused to the brain. The other lottery winner who died soon after Hemachandra was H. Hewage Pradeep Kumara. He also died while in Prison custody at Mahara. He hanged himself with a piece of cloth taken from his clothes but left behind a suicide note saying that he was disillusioned with life. Pradeep Kumara was a winner of small fortunes of the Development Board lottery. His modus operandi was altering the numbers of tickets which did not catch the eye of the lottery officials. Although a drug addict, he was an expert in the art of forgery. On a number of occasions he had forged and won several small prizes of the Development Board Lottery. The prizes were claimed from stall holders. However, he made a big blunder when he visited the same stall holder twice with forged tickets. This attracted the attention of the agent who brought it to the notice of the Development Lottery Board and the man was trapped. This reminds us of the movie currently being screened in Colombo titled " Catch me if you can " where a young person who becomes a notorious criminal for defrauding several international banks. The man was relentlessly pursued by sleuths of the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) for issuing counterfeit cheques world over. They finally catch him and manage to throw him in jail. |
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