Police teams to hunt Piyumi's killers

Police have deployed several teams to hunt for the killers of Piyumi Madhushika, the 15-year-old student of Ellawala Maha Vidyalaya in Eheliyagoda, whose body was found by villagers in a rubber estate, situated 1 1/2 kilometres away from the school. It was found during the postmortem that the victim was raped and murdered while she was returning from school. Her school bag, and shoes were later recovered by the police from a shrub.

Piyumi's mother P. W. Gnanawathie said her daughter had participated in the prefects meeting and left the school at 2.30 p.m. "I was waiting for her till 4 p.m. But she never came and we started to look for her."

Her mother added that Piyumi's handkerchief was found near a precipice in the rubber estate. This led to the discovery of the body.