Katugastota mother's murder

Neighbours who have murdered ....  doctors' mother in house

Early morning last Friday, an aged woman of 76 years of age was murdered in Katugastota area with a blunt instrument while she was alone in the house. The deceased was a mother of five and two of her daughters were doctors. One of the doctors practising at Peradeniya Children's Hospital had even visited her that morning. When the said daughter, the son-in-law and the
three nieces had left the house, the deceased Mrs. Bhadrawathie was alone in the house when a gang had come to the house around 11 in the morning and had attacked her with a blunt knife and murdered her. It was found that more than one person had entered the house and that they had come with the motive of robbing the house. In the process they had searched the almirah in the house and had removed local as well as foreign currency to the value of Rs. 20,000. Subsequently, the police are of the suspicion that they had then fled after committing the murder for fear of being identified.

Katugastota Police sources say that they had received information that the suspects of this murder of the mother of five children were residents of the same area and 3 police teams have been deployed yesterday (14) to track the suspects and take them into custody.

Police have received evidence that the suspects who are believed to have committed the murder are those involved in various nefarious activities and that their behaviour on the day of the incident is being investigated.

Bhadrawathie Gunawardena living in Uduwawala, Katugastota is a mother of 5 children. While 2 of her daughters are doctors by profession, the 2 sons are engaged in high positions in private institutions. Further, a son-in-law of the deceased is the Legal Officer of the upgraded branch of People's Bank in Kandy.

On the morning of the incident, it was the son-in-law the Legal Officer and the 2 doctor-daughters of the Peradeniya Hospital together with their 3 daughters who had visited the house of the deceased Mrs. Bhadrawathie.

These two parties had left the house last Friday (11) approximately at 6.30 in the morning together with the 3 daughters. Police say that after they left, Mrs. Gunawardena had been left isolated at home. 

Subsequently, a telephone call had been received on the mobile phone of the deceased around 9.45 a.m. that day from a relative daughter of hers and the call had been answered. It has been revealed at police investigations that her daughters, on a daily basis used to give her telephone calls every morning and that she would answer them.

Whatever it is, even after that the deceased had received four (04) telephone calls on her phone and that those calls have been recorded as missed calls. In case there were no extra classes for the 3 daughters, the daughter had made plans to come to Uduwawala house  with her children around 2.30 p.m. However, as there were extra classes that day, by the time they reached home it was about 6.00 p.m.

Subsequently when the door was opened, Mrs. Gunawardena was not to be seen and when looking around for a moment, the householders had seen the victim dead in a pool of blood.

According to Judicial Medical inquiries in relation to the incident, it was found that four (4) of her ribs had been damaged. While damage was noticed on her spine region too, it was reported that she had not been raped. 

Investigations to arrest the suspects are underway.

Information -- D.A.S. Kumara