Members of Seya's family leaves home ....

Members of Seya's family leaves home ....

because they remember Seya

After the murder of the child Seya Sandewmi which created a big sensation in the country which took place some months before this, instead of what happened to that family, what was published was news about Kondaya and and the student together with the police. After Seya's tragic death what really happened to them?

Samanthi the mother of Seya Sandewmi has expressed her ideas to a newspaper. This is what she has told the Divaina newspaper:

"With my daughter's murder a great pressure dawned on me. Villagers started saying things to me which I never dreamed of. They had even told that Seya Duwa is not my husband's. We have a good understanding between us. I have never done any wrong in my life. People who knew about me of course didn't demean me. It was people who wanted to spite us that wove all kinds of stories about me and gave the media. When those things from the media and rumours began to spread around I wasn't even able to go on the road. Some people looked at me as if looking at a beast. I dropped mentally to the extent where I wasn't able to tell about my sorrows to someone. It was my comrades at my work=place who patched up my mental condition. My big son is studying in Year 3 in school. The small daughter has to be sent to school. Once again my husband is teaching at an International college. Those children don't know that my husband is Seya's father. It's because our characters also have been destroyed by people. My husband too was branded as a criminal. Some people said that I am the worst mother in this world.

A lot of expenditure was incurred for daughter's funeral and even after that. We became debtors also. We had to sell the van we had. Even today we don't visit our house. Can't go and wait there. We remember our daughter. I feel how she would come running and hang on me saying, 'Amme .... I'm hungry'. All over the house .... daughter Seya's voice echoes. I remember how the child would run here and there and used to play. When we remember those things it's difficult to stay at home. It's not possible to maintain an affinity with the people around as previously. We are still at my ancestral home. We'll not go to our home in Akarangaha village anymore. We'll get a piece of land from somewhere a little distance away and put up a house. The other two children have to be properly educated.

In every instance the day after we came and went for daughter Seya's case our photos are flashed across the media. For this reason my husband sometimes kept away from coming to courts. It was I and mother who continuously kept coming to courts. From the 25th of this month our child's case will be heard right along. There's no problem if the media publishes as to what would happen for daughter's case. The whole world should come to know the punishment given to the murderer who killed my daughter, across the media. Nude photos of my daughter are still appearing in websites. With my daughter's murder, some media had made false broadcasts and damaged our reputation. It was what people in the village told that was published in the media. Because of that we don't blame any media. It was because the media continuously spoke about it after daughter's death that it was possible to nab the murderer who was hiding, so soon".

Note -- Tharanga Ratnaweera