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Young Nilusima was raped, murdered and thrown into the Mahaweli. The parents complained to the police when she went missing. Three months later, there are no fresh leads and believe that police interest is waning. Tharuka Dissanaike reports:
Nelusima - Pix. by Ranjith Perera
There could be no greater pain, no
bigger shock for a parent than the sudden loss of a child. What trauma a mother
or father would undergo if their bubbly youngster went to school one morning
and never returned. For 12 year old Nilusima's parents, the nightmare
continued for two days before taking a turn for the worse. Shattering all hopes
of the parents, the young girl's body was found afloat in the Mahaweli by an
oarsman canoeing down the river .
That was over three months ago. Then, villagers of Pitawala watte and Udowita were shattered by the incident. No crime this heinous has happened in the vicinity before. The shocking truth was revealed at the autopsy. The girl had been raped and later murdered and dumped in the river. The story immediately grabbed headlines in the papers. But yet, no one has been apprehended for the crime. The police claim investigations are continuing.
Nelusima's mother
Nilusima's parents, Sugathapala Lankasara, a mason
and Sriyani Dhammika, have however, lost all faith in the way the investigations
are proceeding. Police interest in the crime is certainly waning. We could
sense that, talking to officers at Gampola Police station. While agreeing in
principle that the crime committed, apparently by a group of men, is dastardly
beyond comprehension, the police claim that they do not have enough evidence to
arrest anybody as yet.
"We have questioned a number of people in the area, and recorded statements of more than 40 people," IP Nawarathne in charge of crime at Gampola said.
The evidence, undoubtedly would have been found among the belongings of Nilusima, where they were dumped on the banks of the Mahaweli river, on the night of November 6. But at that time the police firmly believed that the girl had plunged into the cold waters of the river in a suicidal mood. They had asked her father to take her bag and shoes home. For another one and a half days, the story that went round was that Nilusima, hurt and teary after a scolding from the mother that morning, had committed suicide. Even when her body was found afloat in the river, still in school uniform, not more than a mile from the place where her bag was dumped on the evening of November 8, the police told her father that since no external wounds were visible, it had to be a suicide.
But by then the parents were beyond grief, they were angry. "The morning after she disappeared there was an anonymous letter thrown into a shop close by, saying that Nilusima did not commit suicide but that she was raped and even naming her attackers," the mother, Sriyani said. "The note was sent to the priest of the temple who summoned us and gave the letter."
When the police saw the note, they dismissed it as rumour-mongering. But when the body was found, complications arose. Because of the allegations of rape in the letter, the JMO at Gampola Hospital was reluctant to do the autopsy saying that Kandy hospital would be better equipped to handle it. The autopsy at Kandy revealed a lot more than rape.According to Dr. Korasagolla, JMO, Kandy General Hospital, the girl had been raped repeatedly and the vaginal wall was bruised badly. There were external injuries on the face, arms and legs. Death was by strangulation not more than 12 hours before her body was found floating in the river. Which meant that Nilusima was abducted on the eve of November 6, kept imprisoned and killed more than a day later. There was no evidence of drowning.
Mystery still surrounds the girl's movements that afternoon. After attending school, Nilusima instead of heading straight home as usual, got off the bus a kilometre or so before her usual halt. When questioned by a friend she had replied that she was visiting her best friend, who lives at Udowita. But the friend and her family swear that Nilusima never came to their house that fateful afternoon. Nilusima had spent some time at a cattle farm in Udowita taking notes about rearing cattle in her school note book.
This was not connected to her school curriculum. Then she had been on her way back towards Gampola along the rail track, when she met the youth who was the last person to see her alive. The young man, who was from the sand mine where the school bag was found had warned her about walking alone on the track, accompanied Nilusima to the bus stand and asked her where she was headed. The girl had replied again that she had to go to Udowita. Leaving her near the railway track at Udowita, the youth claims to have returned. Nilusima never did.
Police say they have established the young man's alibi. Two weeks later, the parents received another anonymous letter- pointing to the same people as the culprits.
"When we visit the police now, we feel that they are not pursuing the case with much interest," Sriyani said. If there is any pain greater than the loss of a child it must be the feeling that there is no justice done to the sordid crime that saw her death. " Now we want to write to the IGP and Minister Anuruddha Ratwatte asking for a CID inquiry into the incident.We have even written to the President," the mother sighed. Having exhausted tears and grief, there was only a stoic need to bring her daughter's murderer to justice.
DIG Samarasinghe, in Kandy, said that the police were still investigating the crime. "We have not given up the case," he said. "but how can the investigations progress when nobody is willing to come forward to give evidence?" The DIG said there was a special investigating team looking into the case which included officers from his office also. "We would also be really happy to see the case solved. If the villagers or the parents have any suspect, they can always come and see me," he said.
"We always thought of the future of our children," Sriyani broke down, hugging her little son, their youngest. "Never did we imagine this fate. I always think, if the police had searched for her the day she went missing, my daughter could have been alive now."
We begin our series with 40-year-old Associate Professor of Pathology Preethika Angunuwela. Dressed in a saffron yellow cotton saree and matching blouse, she looks nothing like theproverbial absentminded professor but rather is a picture of crisp efficiency, handling matters of life and death
"My husband and I believe that we must organise our day on a regular basis. We both get up at 6 a.m. My sons, aged fourteen and fifteen get ready on their own, for school.Our family is not the 'bacon and eggs type' for breakfast. We all enjoy kola kande which is very nutritious sans cholesterol forming substances.My sons and husband leave home early and I follow them at 8 a.m. I have a driver, but believe me it is a hassle, getting to work what with road blocks and pot holes and unorthodox overtaking of vehicles. I am lucky to arrive at 8. 30. a.m at my office. As I come in, I feel so sad for some of those who have come personally to collect their biopsy reports. Their life depends on the diagnosis made by the Path Lab. It may mean trouble-free living or it may mean a kind of death sentence.The junior doctors come streaming in with their biopsy reports. I go over them and look at the specimens with them. They are conscientiously enthusiastic and I am glad I can help them with their studies.I check a number of such reports during the course of my working day.Every morning I have one or two lectures. I stand up before about two hundred students and I think, this is another generation of doctors who will soon grapple with diseases.I feel elated when I see their faces full of interest and feel rather dejected when I see uncomprehending faces. Often I repeat myself and if they are seated close to me I ask some of them individually what is troubling them.Lecturing is not just another chore. On how I lecture will depend the understanding of pathology or whatever else is lectured of future doctors. At twelve I leave for home to a lunch of rice and curry and I am back around 2 pm.There is nothing boring in my daily life. I get specimens from the General hospital and some from outside Colombo requesting a biopsy report.The specimens vary, it may be, say the womb of a young woman choked with fibroids. It looks like an enlarged cricket ball. Yes, the normal concept of a womb is that it is a very large organ. It only expands in pregnancy. Now I dissect it so and look at the fibroids which have made the young woman spend an uncomfortable life with constant bleeding.Or take this long piece of the large intestine. It looks kind of dark and unappealing. Those not used to such specimens naturally shudder. I am sorry for this person, here I have dissected it and just by the look I can say that the tumour is malignant.''It is not a matter to be taken frivolously though we do not know or have not even seen the patient. It is sad. I often feel like a judge passing a sentence of death on a person. On my report of a tumour will depend the life of a man or woman. Some call for their reports personally or send a relative. It is hard to explain when a tumour is malignant. Those who are uneducated often do not understand what I say.From the case history it troubles me and makes me unhappy when the patient is diagnosed as malignant and not benign. I mean the growth or tumour. I feel, my God, how deplorable, this can happen to anyone of us. But we never discourage a person who calls for the report personally or by proxy. We always try to give them hope to live and accept their condition.Then some time is spent at faculty meetings though not on a daily basis. There are often in a day, sub- committee meetings such as the sub-committee on research and sub-committee on ethics.These are all in a day's work.I go home around 4 p.m. At home I relax, only then reading the morning newspapers. I also do some house work. Doctor or not I am a housewife and so do some household chores. From 6 p.m. to about 7. 30 pm I take my sons' lessons. My husband takes their Mathematics since he is an Accountant. From around 7.30 pm till 8 pm my husband and I spend time together while we walk round Parliament, which is close to our home at Battaramulla. We share our daily experience and discuss any problems at work.We all sit down to dinner. We eat stringhoppers or we do indulge in simple courses. I love chocolate and so my dessert is mostly that.There is no sameness to my days as such despite the routine, and lecturing to the young makes one feel young too. Besides in my day I meet with challenges diagnosing a specimen. It is an awesome task. Even doctors send us a small piece of an affected part to find out whether to operate or not.Daily I guide young doctors hoping that one day they will be up to this challenging task.The hardest part is watching the sorrowful and tense faces of those awaiting a biopsy report. I must say, I cannot get hardened to this.
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