Corpse of mother supposed to have been thrown into jungle ... recovered from well! Son arrested in Colombo

Corpse of mother supposed to have been thrown into jungle ... recovered from well! Son arrested in Colombo

A dead body supposed to have been buried after death of a person of Watawala police division in Wigton estate was exhumed yesterday (13). 

A woman by the name of Ragai Walli of Wigton estate aged 83 years had been missing from a few days back. On inquiries conducted in this connection it was revealed that that the said woman had
died and due to lack of finances to bury her, the dead body had been taken to the jungle by her son. 

Her daughter in law has made a statement to Watawala police that this aged woman had expired inside the house last 9th and that since the son has told that he does not have money to attend to funeral matters he would throw the body into the jungle and has thus taken it away. Police officers on recording a statement from the dead woman's 8 year old nephew he had told them that his father and elder brother had struck the woman with a wooden pole and subsequently had tied her to a chair and when she has started bleeding from her eyes and face his father has dumped her inside a gunny bag and taken her away. 

On this statement the daughter in law was first taken into custody on suspicion and after having gone to Colombo in her company had then arrested the husband and elder son day before yesterday (12) on suspicion. On interrogation of the son so arrested he has for a long period of time, he has then admitted that the dead body was thrown into a well used for cultivation purposes. Accordingly the said corpse was exhumed yesterday (13) in the presence of acting district judge and magistrate Mr. Sanjeewa Fonseka. 

On several inquiries conducted in this connection some people in that estate have said that this aged woman had been in a sickly condition and according to what they said, the person who is supposed to be her son is in reality not the dead woman's son and that she has adopted him even from his small days. The people also have said that she has toiled and suffered much to bring him up by working at various places for a long period of time. They finally added that after the woman who brought him up with so much suffering has become sick she has been made to live in a small hut in front of the house and that the hut was kept covered by a polythene.  The exhumed body was taken to Dickoya district basic hospital for judicial medical examination. Watawala police have commenced a wide-scaled inquiry into this incident. 

Manura Sudath Sellahewa - Hatton