The tragic fate of the Kurunegala International School student addicted to games

An invisible killer hidden within a mobile phone has been able to plunge all the hopes of parents, who toil day and night for their children's future, into darkness in an instant. At a time when several countries around the world are banning the use of mobile phones for young children, the horrific danger and tragedy associated with it have once again been confirmed on the soil of our own country.

Sixteen-year-old Sandaru Dewmina Bandara, an exceptionally talented school student studying at a prominent international school in Kurunegala town, fell from the upper floor of a four-story building on Udawalapola Road, Kurunegala, where he resided, in the early hours of the 8th, bidding farewell to life and plunging the entire area into a sea of tears.

Sandaru, the eldest child in the family, born to a father who was a lawyer and a mother who was a teacher, was fortunate enough to be promoted two grades higher in school due to his exceptional academic talents. He was a loving elder brother to two younger sisters. On the morning of the day he faced this unfortunate fate, he was fully prepared to leave with his father to sit for the G.C.E. Ordinary Level examination conducted by the British Council at the Bandaranaike Memorial International Conference Hall in Colombo. For these parents, who had temporarily moved into the rented apartment specifically for their children's education, having to prepare for their beloved son's final journey instead of his examination journey was a cruel twist of fate.

When the building's security officers found the student's body fallen on the ground around 5:00 AM on Friday, his mother still believed he was awake studying for his exam throughout the night. However, only his pair of shoes, suspected to have been removed neatly, were found at the open top floor of the building, where he is believed to have gone seeking freedom. Even more tragically, an online gambling game was still active on his father's mobile phone, which was found at the scene. The magisterial inquiry and police investigations revealed that the student had left his room without his mother's knowledge and had been engaged in this online game on his father's phone for a long time before his death.

A serious doubt has now arisen as to whether the death of this youth, who reportedly fell to the ground after hitting an iron fence with a terrifying sound heard around 3:35 AM, was merely an accident or an act of obedience to a command given by a mobile phone. Although severe head and chest injuries caused by a blunt object and excessive bleeding were confirmed by the Judicial Medical Officer of Kurunegala Teaching Hospital as the cause of death, the mobile phone game, which also drew the close attention of Crime Scene Investigation Officers (SOCO), is suspected to be of a nature that sometimes distorts the player's mind and commands or incites suicide. The question of whether he ended his life in a state of mind he could not control is the biggest challenge facing the police officers conducting investigations under the instructions of Senior Superintendent of Police Mr. Tissa Vithanage.

The advice given by Kurunegala Acting Magistrate Dr. Philician Perera during the inquest, that one should think not twice but a thousand times before placing a mobile phone in a child's hand, is not merely a legal statement but a tearful final warning to the entire society where a generation of children is silently falling victim to technology.