Somawansa Amarasinghe passes away -- Update

Somawansa Amarasinghe passes away -- Update

It was at a home in Rajagiriya belonging to a brother of JVP leader Mr. Somawansa Amarasinghe that he passed away last morning. As Mr. Somawansa has delayed in awaking his brother had checked about him in the morning and what he had then seen was that he had been lying on the bed in his room bleeding from the nose, it has been reported. The verdict given at the post-mortem was that death

was caused as a result of a blood vessel had burst in the brain and it is in the following manner that his brother Mr. Piyasena Amarasinghe said about Mr. Somawansa's demise:

"Our ancestral homes were in Ethagama, Kalutara. Now we are in Rajagiriya. I have been living in this house in Rajagiriya for quite some time. After leaving Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna Somawansa Malli had been living with us for a period of about one year. Sometime back a by-pass surgery also was performed on him. After that Somawansa Malli spent his time in good health. My Malli always used to get up at 6 in the morning. Those days Malli used to indulge in physical exercises and go for walks on the road. But from recent times he lessened those activities. But Malli would walk twenty five or thirty rounds every day from the balcony to the inside of the house.

In our family itself we have seven brothers and sisters. The youngest in our family is Somawansa Malli. Elder brothers and sisters are no longer living. On most occasions he would drink his tea and then engage in reading and writing work. He would take his dinner at about 8.30 in the night. After that almost daily he would watch television. On most instances it is news that he favoured watching. As usual he had his dinner and after watching the news broadcast he went to the top floor and after drinking some medicine came down to watch television with us. As on other days after watching news at 10 in the night and as was the custom he bade us goodnight at about 10.30 and went up to sleep. He took a glass of water with him.

Since he did not get up even until 9 in the morning we opened the door of his room and looked. As a habit he would not lock the door. What we thought was that he had engaged in exercises and had once again gone to sleep. When we opened the door and checked his room why he had not woken up, he was in the same position that he used to sleep on the bed. He had bled profusely from both his nostrils. He hadn't even drunk from the glass of water that he took upstairs. Later we understood that he had passed away. We then informed the police".

The post-mortem of Mr. Somawansa Amarasinghe was conducted last afternoon (15) at the Judicial Medical Officer's Office in Colombo and it was revealed there that his death was due to internal haemmorage as a result of a rupture in the brain. Final funeral activities of Mr. Somawansa Amarasinghe would be carried out at Borella Kanatta on 18th Saturday June. His remains are at present lying at No. 35, Singhapura, Talangama South, Pelawatta, Battaramulla.

Information -- Sapumal Jayasena / Thilak Pushpakumara