Untold misery strikes family
By Ananda
Agalakada
The guiding force behind children is their parents. It is a tragedy
when children lose their parents and it is worse when tragedy strikes
due to petty reasons such as suspicion.
We unravel the tale of Shammugan Shantha, a village damsel from
Trincomalee. She survived many calamities as a child. Poverty and
terrorism plagued their lives. Her childhood was not a pleasant one.
Because of poverty her school career had been short-lived. She struggled
to get trough a decent education but she was determined that she will
somehow pull it off. However, even after her marriage to Ramu she had to
suffer a lot because her husband did not earn enough and she did
everything to make ends meet.
However, her motto in life was to survive. She strived to make ends
meet from childhood. Going through severe hardships because of
terrorism, life in the East was not rosy. But life had to go on
irrespective of what happened around them.
When she was 18 she married Ramu Manmohan who was 33 years old. They
had five children, two daughters and three sons. Ramu was a labourer.
Although Ramu was nearly double her age she respected and aored him. He
strived hard to make ends meet. He hardly had a full night's sleep. Many
were the days when he did not have a regular meal. However, Ramu
understood the realities of life and how to live in society.
He looked at life with his wife and children with a lot of
expectations. Ramu often sacrificed his needs for his family.
He took life as it came. He worked hard to feed and fend for his
family. They as a family were content for quite awhile till the children
reached the age of maturity.
Shammugan Shantha too never despised her husband because he was poor.
She looked after the children and respected Ramu as a husband. She
always tried hard to remain a faithful wife and took pride in her
family. She did everything within her means to improve their lot but
still could not help her family as she wanted to. She made all attempts
to educate her children and send them to school in trying conditions.
There were times that the children went to school without a morning
meal. Then she would do something and prepare a decent afternoon meal
for them so that they would not go hungry the whole day. She encouraged
them to be self reliant in whatever way they could so that they need not
go begging and showed them the way to manage with what they had.
In this backdrop, a phone call from the China Bay police perturbed
the family. The caller was an official from the Trincomalee Hospital who
reported the gruesome news of the death of a woman under suspicious
circumstances. The deceased was none other than Shammugan Shantha.
Police commenced investigations on the death of the woman.
Murder
It was then that the news of the gruesome murder came to light. Ramu
had lately suspected his wife of having an illicit affair. The peaceful
family life had gradually turned into an inferno with daily brawls
becoming the order of the day. Unfounded suspicion in Ramu's mind kept
brewing and he constantly kept assaulting his wife for no rhyme or
reason. However much she tried to handle the situation she was
unsuccessful.
The love and respect she had for Ramu was gradually dwindling.
Residents say that although they had heard loud quarrels between the duo
they had never seen Shammugan Shantha keeping company with any other
man. They had never seen Shantha talk to outsiders. Most often she kept
to herself and was carrying on with her household chores.
He began to suspect his wife at every turn and accused her of having
an extra marital relationship under his very nose but Shantha vehemently
denied having such an affair.
But it was to no avail, he continue to harass and abuse her and
Shantha was very upset about these unfounded suspicions and allegations
and was often in a thoughtful mood not knowing how to prove her
innocence
On that fateful day Ramu woke up at about 4.30 am. His volcanic mind
could not take it any more. It was seeking nothing, but vengeance. He
was contemplating what action he could take to punish his wife, who
according to him was being unfaithful.
The villain in Ramu was getting the better of him. In a sudden fit of
rage Ramu had grabbed the axe he used to chop firewood and swooped on
his wife who was fast asleep. He had mercilessly hacked his wife in a
frenzy forgetting all human feelings and his children who will now
suffer without a mother.
Although the neighbours rushed her to the Trincomalee Hospital with
the assistance of their children she was pronounced dead on admission to
hospital.
The OIC of China Bay police, Abeyratne Bandara and his officers
pursued the alleged murderer Ramu, but for the first two days they could
not find any information about him. Two days after the demise of
Shammugan Shantha, the China Bay police phone rang yet again breaking
the news of the whereabouts of Ramu.
Ramu had decided to take his own life by leaping into the farm well.
According to police, Ramu had turned out to be a killer because of
the suspicion he had about his wife and as time went by these suspicions
were fermenting in his head and he was becoming uncontrollable. Shouting
at his wife, then abusing and being nasty to her.
Nasty
He had even turned nasty towards his children and began scolding
them. The police later revealed that Ramu had quarrelled with his wife
many times. The eldest son was 20 years and the youngest was seven years
when their parents died.
The youngest boy was shocked at the turn of events and could not
comprehend what happened to his mother and father. His older siblings
were tying to explain to him so that he could come to terms with the
loss of both parents.
However, now the children have no one to take care of them. A few
weeks after their parents death, Shammugam had promised the neighbours
that she would look after the children and take good care of them
because she too could not come to terms with what had happened to the
once happy family.
The 20-year-old boy was employed in the cement company in Trincomalee
and the second daughter was married to a driver. The two of them had
also agreed to contribute whatever they could to upkeep the younger
siblings as they had to attend school and had a few more years to
complete.
It was the youngest boy who was sobbing calling out to his parents as
he just could not understand what had happened to them in such a short
space of time.
Their step-mother had undertaken to look after the other three
children who were studying at the Sarasota School in Trincomalee.
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