THIRD DOUBLE MURDER AT KAHAWATTE

Another double female murder at Kahawatte:

“It appears to our minds that we have become helpless’, Investigations are on to find about this ‘sms’

During the past few months, the people of Kahawatta were terribly disturbed on hearing the previous double murders. It was reported last morning that another female double murder had added to this tally with the murder of aged mother and her unmarried daughter making the villagers more disturbed.
The victims had lived in Kotaketha area in Kahawatta. Those murdered have been identified as a 63 year old Premawathie Hewagamage and her 32 year old unmarried daughter Pushpa Kumari who had lived together in the house. The murderer had entered the house by breaking  a iron grill fixed to a window in the house. The mother and daughter had slept in two separate rooms.
The murderer had killed the two with sharp weapons and had dragged the bodies to a bed and had set fire to a mattress laid on the dead bodies. He had then fled by opening the front door and had escaped through the main gate which had been kept opened when the neighbours had come to see the house in flames. This had happened around 3 A.M last morning. The manner in which the two had been killed had been quite similar to the killings of the two sets of women on earlier occasions. The strange thing about this is that all murders had taken place in the same Kotaketha area in kahawatte. This is incidentally the 14 th killing reported from Kahawatte in the recent past.
The neighbours had rushed to see as to why the house was on fire around 3.30 A.m. They had splashed water and brought the fire under control. When they came into the house from the front door they had seen the burnt dead bodies in one room. The blood stains of the dead were found sprayed only in one room. The Police believe that both had been killed in that room and dragged to another room before burning them.
The old lady’s husband had died some years back and she had been living in this house with her unmarried daughter. One of her sons was married and had lived close by while the other bachelor son had lived at a distant place.
The 32 year old unmarried daughter Pushpa Kumari had worked in a jewellery shop. The house was built in a land which was about one acre in extent and there had been paddy fields that belonged to the murdered mother. The motive of the killing could not be disclosed up to last afternoon even after deploying Police sniffer dogs. The Police had found an empty bottle of arrack and with some snacks near the house. There had been no clue about the culprits up tp late last afternoon.
The 32 year old Pushpa Kumari had sent a ‘SMS’ the previous night to a colleague working with he and it read as ”it appears to our minds that we are helpless”.
The Police are very anxious to know with what motive and intention this ‘SMS” was sent. It is believed that there may have some conflicts with regard to some land disputes. Up to date 10 people have been questioned and the Police intends to obtain the services of sniffer Police dog ‘Siba’ to help in the investigations. It is learnt that a team from the CID had already left to kahawatte. while three separate Police teams are conducting investigations.