THERE WAS A QUARREL BETWEEN US

THERE WAS A QUARREL BETWEEN US .... I DIDN'T KILL HER ON PURPOSE 

I WAS TO TAKE THE CORPSE IN THE SUITCASE TO VAVUNIYA

- CONFESSION OF ILLICIT HUSBAND

The person who was supposed to be the paramour of the dead woman whose corpse was found left behind in a suitcase which incident created a hulabaloo near the Anuradhapura Bus-halt down

Bastian Mawatha, Pettah some days back was taken into custody in Kovilkulam area in Mannar after which he admitted that he committed the murder and had made a confession of the manner in which he had done it.

At the moment he was arrested, he had been working as a mason in a house. This suspect had lived with the deceased for quite a long time after the deceased woman had been involved in certain issues with her earlier husband and he had left her and got married to another woman after which he had gone overseas. However there had been objections on both sides to the new alliance. This couple had come to Colombo from Jaffna 3 years before this. They had lived in areas such as Armour Street and Kandana and they had worked at a poultry farm. During the period they were living in Kandana, she had conceived a baby from this paramour. Even from the previous marriage the victim had given birth to a child and that child had been given over to relatives and on this occasion after the baby was born she had disappeared from Ragama Hospital, the suspect has mentioned at his confession. The reason in fact for this has been their poverty.

Subsequently the victim had worked at another poultry farm in Divulapitiya area. As a result of an issue that took place with the owner of that poultry farm the two of them had been chased from there. Because they were unable to go to Jaffna immediately they had come to live in a guest house down Sea Street. The suspect and the victim had been staying there for about week. An argument on the subject of securing a job has cropped up on 29th morning. After the owner sent a message that he was willing to give employment to the woman only the victim had refused to go there alone and that is where the conflict has arisen. On that occasion as a result of an assault made on the victim she had instantly died. The victim had aimed blows at the suspect from a slipper and as a reaction he had aimed several blows on her in turn. He had but not thought she would die in the process. However he had noticed that she had in fact died because of a blow that had been struck on a vulnerable point of her head and had been seriously alarmed because of that.

The suspect who had thought that he would be found guilty for this killing and thus face unnecessary trouble had folded the corpse in two and had put it in a travelling bag and thought of proceeding to a house of one of his sisters. It was in this way that he tries to leave from the bus-halt of Bastian Mawatha, Pettah. The suspect had in fact wanted to set off to Vavuniya with 2 other travelling bags apart from the said bag, in a three-wheeler.

Since the bag containing the dead body was more of a weight he had kept it at the bus-halt and had gone away for a few moments to the Vavuniya Bus-halt for the purpose of checking whether there was a bus that was to leave for Vavuniya. However when he arrived back at the place to collect the bag containing the corpse was he had noticed that a crowd had gathered there. As the police had come there and were conducting investigations there and the place was infested with people, he had become frightened and given up the thought of taking the travelling bag into his hands and had set off to the house of his sister in Vavuniya. Having stayed there one day in that house he had left to a relative's home in Mannar. Subsequently, the suspect was apprehended when he had gone for mason-work, according to police investigations. The suspect had confessed that the murder had been committed not on purpose but on violent temper.