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Trader dies intervening to save another from assault
View(s):By Aanya Wipulasena
The death of a 42-year-old rice mill owner in Padaviya has left many of its villagers in shock and grief. Sonny Senarathne, a father of four, who is well known for his work as a political activist of the JVP, died of injuries sustained when he intervened to save another man who was being attacked.
The victim Sonny Senarathne
Every day, Mr Senarathne would go early to work in his rice mill situated in front of his house, as the villagers came to him with their harvest. He was a honest and conscientious trader.
On January 12, the fateful day, Mr Senarathne went to the mill as usual, unaware that it would be his last day on earth.
The unfortunate incident he got caught up with involved a company named Wickremaratne (Pvt) Ltd which supplied food items to the Army on a large scale. It was rumoured that the company’s lorry drivers and their assistants were suspected of selling the goods to shops along the way.
That evening, a vehicle belonging to Wickremaratne (Pvt) Ltd had stopped at Senarathne’s mill for the driver to buy some rice. An ‘anti-fraud’ group of seven from Wickremaratne (Pvt) Ltd, who were on their ‘rounds’ in a jeep, saw a company truck stopped in front of Senarathne’s mill, and suspected that the driver was selling goods to him.
This seven-member group confronted the lorry driver and attacked him. Mr Senarathne, realising this was a misunderstanding, intervened and was brutally assaulted. He was seriously wounded and died on the way to hospital.“My husband is a good person.
He always went to the aid of any person who needed help,” said his widow W. Malani Mangalika (36). “My children are all under 17, with the youngest just three. Because of a misunderstanding and mistrust they lost their father. They rushed to the scene of the fracas, when they heard their father’s screams, and pleaded with his attackers to stop, to no avail. At last when they did, it was too late”
Mangalika’s brother, D.M. Lakmal said that he has never seen his brother-in-law have an argument with anyone. “The villagers liked him. As he was also involved in politics, he was able to help many people in the area. My brother-in-law only wanted to point out the misunderstanding that day and save the poor driver from a crime he didn’t commit,” he said.
According to Anuradhapura Criminal Investigation Bureau OIC I.B. Rathnayake, the seven-member group, who were all from Colombo, were arrested by the Chunnakam Police while on their way to Jaffna, and remanded till January 23.
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