Maid's death termed homicide

Mohammed Rasooldeen in Riyadh

The case of Sri Lankan housemaid who was alleged to have committed suicide in her apartment has now turned out to be a homicide following intensive police investigations.

The Police in the Aziziyah District have arrested Saudi sponsor and his wife, who have alleged to have staged a drama to portray that Kamalawathie Menike Wijetunge ,45, had committed suicide outside the apartment, where she was working.

The police found Kamalawathie dead on the staircase with an empty Clorox bottle lying near her body, which gave the initial impression that she had drunk disinfectant in a bid to commit suicide.

Following investigations, police found black and blue marks on her body and had arrested the Saudi sponsor Mubarak Al Dosary and his wife for the alleged murder.

The post mortem report had revealed that there was no liquid of Clorox found in her body Kamalawathie had come to the Kingdom in February last year to work for Dosary and she had been working with the same sponsor till her death in December.

According to the sources from the Sri Lankan Embassy, the mission came to know of her death only in March when it made inquiries with the concerned police on a complaint made by her relatives that they have lost contact with the maid . Kamalawathie was the second Sri Lankan maid to have become victim under the hands of the local sponsors.

The recent victim was Ihalagedarage Dayawathie, Sri Lankan housemaid whose body was found in a desert in Al Jouf on October 21 last year.

Her body was repatriated at the expense of the Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment only last week following police clearance after its preliminary investigations.

In connection with this murder, Hofuf police had arrested the Saudi sponsor Hamdan Ruwaishid and his wife Maryam bint Sadook who have alleged to have murdered Daywathie.

"Bodies of deaths due to natural causes are invariably cleared by the authorities as quickly as possible."