Inquiries launched on Amali who committed suicide ... because of rag by Sabaragamuwa seniors asking her to act like in a blue film and yell!

Inquiries launched on Amali who committed suicide ...

because of rag by Sabaragamuwa seniors asking her to act like in a blue film and yell!

An incident where a student at Sabaragamuwa University by the name of Amali Chathurika hanged herself with a sari and committed suicide in her home was reported three and a half years before this in February, 2015. News circulated that it was the result of a case of ragging which caused severe mental pressure on her ... with the media publishing a pat of a letter written by her.

However, the relevant university vice chancellor and Head of the faculty expressed matters in the presence of the media that it was not the case of ragging but that it had resulted in an aggravated

psychological condition which contributed to the incident and that she was someone who attempted committing suicide even prior to that and that psychological counselling accompanied with medical treatment was administered. What they had argued and told was that as a result of this mental weakness, deceased Amali had failed her examination; but she had been given a second chance to remain in her first year.

They had further exclaimed that the act of suicide took place when she was on vacation for a number of months and that any ragging had no connection to the incident concerned and that her mother had informed that no further inquiries are necessary. A special media briefing had been conducted by Sabaragamuwa students' association those days refuting the ragging story.

As information was not provided by the university, Homagama police too held no investigation in respect of Amali who died at her home in Pannipitiya. As a consequence, reasons for the suicide went under the carpet together with her death.

23 year old Amali Chathurika of Applied Science faculty of Sabaragamuwa University who hanged herself with a saree and died in the Pannipitiya house was incidentally an Old Girl of Colombo Devi Balika Vidyalaya. It was a fact that at the time of her death she was suffering from mental stress and had been taking treatment. However, a suspicion has emerged that root cause for the issue was undergoing because of the incident of ragging.

This is how Professor Udaya Ratnayaka, Head of Applied Science of Sabaragamuwa University expressed his ideas: "It's quite sometime since this child entered the university. She came around February or March last year. She had begun to behave in a queer manner in the hostel. After this came to be known, she was sent home with the mother. She underwent medical treatment and in that way she used to come and go several times. In the process, she was provided the opportunity of attending to the practical aspect of her studies which she had missed. These days study leave has been granted. This student asked for one year's time to come with a new batch. So we gave her that chance. After going hoe she spoke many times and asked whether she could come again.

On the first day that she came she brought forward various kinds of problems. In some instances what she says is contrary to one another ... doesn't agree ... strange. We conducted an inquiry to detect whether there was some influence related to a case of ragging. During the process of this inquiry, she and her mother made a request saying that that further  inquiry is not warranted, asking us to prepare the environment necessary for studies. And so we put a stop to it. Thereafter we received no complaint upto now. She was given the chance of following up studies on the practical aspect which she missed because of ragging or any incident related to it, thus providing her the necessary co-operation. She next asked for one year vacation saying that she cannot study in the night time because she is sick. At the time this incident occured ... she had taken that leave and was at home".

This is what Head of the faculty of Sabaragamuwa University, Chandana P. Udawatta said in this connection in 2015: " It was reported that she was suffering from stress. There is a mental health unit at the university and she had taken treatment from there. I really regret about the incorrect statement that she committed suicide because of an incident of ragging at Sabaragamuwa".

Deceased Amali Chathurika was the only child in the family and she has had a boy friend. But nobody had been against that romance as such. After her father divorced her mother, she had lived with her mother alone from the time she was 6 years old. On the occasion she came back from university in the year 2014 she faced problems of ragging, an attempt made by her to put an end to her life by pouring kerosene oil on the mattress had failed.

This is what her mother said about it: "She tried to give up attending the university last year saying she got caught to ragging. Later she took medicine for mental pressure. She took medicine right along. Even on the morning of the day the death occured, she was to attend the clinic. She was to go for counselling on Friday. She told that she wants to talk to the doctor a little more".

Amali Chathurika had left a letter written by her as her last wish there is nothing reand committed suicide and what was presented by the media in 2015 was only a part of that letter. In the rest of that lengthy letter she had even exposed names of those who subjected her to the rag. But there is nothing reported to the effect that authorities had conducted a formal investigation about them". An inquiry has now been resumed by Highe Education Minister Dr. Wijayadasa Rajapaksha on a request made by the girls mother of late saying that justice has not been meted out with regard to the daughter's death. The Minister of Higher Education has thus complained to the police commission that a full inquiry be carried out with regard to the death of deceased student Amali Chathurika who hanged herself as a result of being subjected to serious mental agony and to enforce the law on those responsible.

It is stated in the complaint forwarded by the Minister that student Sayakkara Hewage Amali Chathurika of Sabaragamuwa University and living in Mambulgoda, Pannipitiya was subjected to ragging had written two letters on February 16th, 2015 and had hanged herself and committed suicide; that from the day Amali Chathurika entered the university, the two senior students called A.M.M. Athukorala alias Masha of Kiriwattuduwa and A. Ivan Akaravita alias Isuru living in Kendalanda, Homagama had been subjecting her to physical and mental pressure going beyond ragging, thus creating violence bringing various forms of suffering to her. It is further mentioned there that they had on a number of instances motivated her to commit suicide and had ordered her to jump down from the second floor of the hostel.

In the meantime what is revealed from what is circulated in the social media is that the rag launched on Amali is something used to satisfy necessities of a distorted mentality. She had been asked to come to the canteen of university and the two senior students had displayed a video containing lewd sexual scenes in public and had thus and had ordered her to imitate the female seen there by placing Amali's body and act also screaming in that same manner and both male and female students having viewed it had thus derived a base satisfaction.

The Minister had in the end requested that a case be filed against the then vice chancellor of Sabaragamuwa University for not providing necessary evidence to police and on evading evidence on purpose from the police saying that it is a black mark on the name of the campus and to conduct disciplinary action against the then officer-in-charge of Homagama Police for not conducting a proper inquiry in connection with the complaint. The Police Commission would be taking action in the future with regard to the incident concerned. Published below is the letter supposed to have been written by Amali