Murder of a young dancing teacher
Ananda Jayasena Snr. Suptd. of Police (Rtd.)
There are two main access roads from Aluthgama to Matugama. Besides
these two roads there is yet another road through Kalawila-Navathtuduwa.
As this road was poorly maintained it was seldom used by vehicular
traffic. There were also a few houses distantly placed between one
another.
On May 16, 1966, Saturday some schoolchildren were to go on a picnic.
A few of them left their houses around 6.00 a.m. to go to their school
where a private bus was waiting for them. On their way to school whilst
passing a lonely stretch of the road they saw the dead body of a woman
by the side of the road. The frightened children ran to the closest
house which was about 100 yards away and informed the inmates. The chief
occupant of the house who went to see the body informed the gramasevaka
who in turn informed the Aluthgama Police.
As OIC Aluthgama, I proceeded to the scene with sergeant Ariyadasa
and PC Tilakaratne. The body was found by the side of a gravel road. The
closest house was about 140 yards away. The body was that of a woman
dressed in a light blue coloured saree and a white dotted pink blouse.
The body was lying face upwards with the feet pointed north. The
place where the body lay was overgrown with grass and weeds. About one
square foot around the head was completely burnt. A partially burnt
gunny bag covered the dead woman’s face. An empty one gallon tin was
found a few feet away from the body. The empty tin smelt, strongly of
petrol and was taken as a production.
I placed the sergeant and PC at the scene and returned to the
Aluthgama Police Station. I gave a telephone massage to the office of
the Registrar of Fingerprints to send two officers to the scene of the
murder. I also requested the magistrate to send a judicial officer to
hold an inquest at the scene of murder.
In the fore noon Vernon Fernando JPUM visited the scene, held the
inquest and ordered the dead body to be taken to the Base Hospital
(mortuary), Kalutara. He ordered the JMO Kalutara to hold the post
mortem examination on the body of the unknown woman. The Registrar of
Fingerprints who visited the scene traced three fingerprints on the
empty tin of petrol.
Post mortem
The next morning the JMO Dr. B. C. Perera held the post mortem
examination and reported as follows.” I held the P.M. examination on an
unidentified woman at the Base Hospital Mortuary, Kalutara. She was
between 24 to 28 years of age, height 5 feet 2 inches with a very long
head of hair, leanly built, fair complexion. She was not a virgin at the
time of death and was in a very early stage of pregnancy.
The front of the face was burnt beyond recognition. This was caused
after her death. Cause of death had been as a result of firing two shots
with a .22 revolver at very close range. Both bullets had gone through
the head smashing the brain. Death had been instantaneous.”
On the face of this report a case of homicide was given. Discreet
inquiries were made but no information was forthcoming.
On the 20 morning whilst I was going through the ‘Daily Information
Sheet’ received from Police HQ I found details of a woman of the same
age as the deceased, had gone missing from the Ingiriya Police area. I
contacted OIC Ingiriya and he directed the party to appear at the
Aluthgama Police station that very afternoon.
The party consisted of the mother of the deceased, her boarding
mistress and a male cousin. The party was sent to the Kalutara Hospital
mortuary with PC Tilakaratne. The party identified the dead body as
Devasurendra Padmini Somalata, a dancing teacher at a leading school in
Horana.
I recorded the statement of the mother of the deceased Mahagama
Acharige Podina. She stated that the deceased was her daughter and that
she taught dancing at a school in Horana. She was boarded at a relations
house in Ingiriya. In 1962, she was awarded a scholarship to train as a
dancing teacher in India. She returned from India after two years and
was appointed a dancing teacher.
According to Podina her daughter was well behaved and had no lovers
but her music teacher was interested in her but the parents refused to
consent to the marriage as he was 20 years older than her.
The statement of the boarding mistress Kalyani Devendra who was a
distant relative of the deceased was recorded. She stated that Padmini
was boarded at her house for the last eight months. On Friday the 15,
she left the house around 6.30 a.m. to go to school. Before she left she
informed the boarding mistress that she was going to Kuruwita to her
mother’s house after school and would be back on Monday. She never
returned.
Body
The body of Padmini was not removed to her ancestral home in Kuruwita
as decomposition had set in and was buried at the general cemetery at
Nagoda in Kalutara.
Three weeks after the murder I received an anonymous petition by post
which stated that the deceased woman was seen at the Mahagama circuit
bungalow in the company of a man on the afternoon of the May 15.
On receipt of this letter, I contacted OIC Bulathsinhala Inspector
Frank Senanayake and on the following day both of us went to the circuit
bungalow which is situated on the Matugama Bulathsinhala road about
seven miles from Matugama. This bungalow was Government run under the
G.A. Kalutara. It had been opened in 1937 for Government servants en
route on official duties and provided meals and accommodation.
The bungalow keeper was Siyadoris of Katana. Besides him there was
Wilbert Mendis a young lad employed as a cook cum room boy. As the
income from this circuit bungalow was limited the GA Kalutara had
permitted accommodation for outsiders when there were no bookings from
Government servants. The bungalow keeper was instructed to charge 50
percent more from outsiders.
The statement of Siyadoris was recorded. He stated that in the
afternoon of May 15, around 12.15 p.m. Kelum Mahipala a music teacher
known to him came to the bungalow with his wife in his Ford Anglia car 4
SRI 4323. They had a late lunch and early dinner and left around 8.00
p.m. the same day. According to him this couple had come to the bungalow
4 or 5 times earlier as well.
The bill for the room was Rs. 20 and both meals had cost them Rs. 37.
Mahipala had given Siyadoris one of his cheques for Rs. 100. When
Siyadoris returned the balance Rs. 43 Mahipala gave him a tip of Rs. 3.
I perused the cheque leaf. It was a Bank of Ceylon cheque bearing No.
2770 of account number 1780. I did not take charge of the cheque and
asked Siyadoris to bank it.
Sobbing and Crying
I recorded the statement of Wilbert Mendis too. He stated that he
took lunch and dinner to the room the couple occupied and on both
occasions the lady was crying. He also said that when he was outside the
room he heard the woman sobbing and crying and he told his boss
Siyadoris that the couple had been fighting in the room.
Both the lunch and dinner plates served to the woman were left more
or less untouched. The guest register maintained at the bungalow stated
that a Mr. and Mrs. Mahipala had booked a room on May 15, 1966 at 12.15
p.m. and left at 8.05 p.m. I reported the facts to courts and through
courts obtained the particulars of the Bank of Ceylon Account No. 1780.
The account holder was Kapuge Kelum Mahipala. I also collected the
relevant cheque leaf given to Siyadoris.
The account holder had signed on the face of the cheque whilst
Siyadoris Appuhamy had written his name and signed on the reverse of the
cheque. The cheque was dated 15.05.1966 and was to the value of Rs. 100.
I took charge of the cheque leaf from the bank as a production in the
case.
Inquiries made revealed that Mahipala was a music demonstrator at the
Teachers Training School. He was a flamboyant character who possessed a
licensed gun and was fond of hunting. He was at resident of 28,
Gangabada Road, Kalutara and a native of Thebuwana.
I sent sergeant Ariyadasa to the Kalutara kachcheri to check the gun
licence register. It was ascertained that G.A. Kalutara had issued a
permit for a 16 bore breach loading single barrel gun in the year 1951
to Kelum Mahipala. Sergeant Ariyadasa removed the applicants fingerprint
form from the file maintained at the Kachcheri and the office
assistant’s statement to this effect was recorded by him.
I sent the fingerprint form of Kelum Mahipala to the Registrar of
Fingerprints and requests that a comparison be made with the
fingerprints found on the empty petrol tin found at the scene of the
murder at Aluthgama on May 16, 1966. Two days later the office of the
Registrar of Fingerprints confirmed that the fingerprints on the gun
licence form and those on the empty petrol tin found at the scene of the
murder were identical.
Regret
I went to the house of the accused Mahipala. He was present. When I
explained the charge against him he categorically said that he was
innocent and that I was making a mistake that I would have to regret
later as he would sue me.
At the police station I interrogated him in detail. He was a hard nut
to crack. He denied having an account in any bank. When I produced the
cheque leaf he had given to Siyadoris he refused to admit it. However
when I showed him his signature and Siyadoris’ signature he broke down.
He made a lengthy statement and admitted that it was his cheque but that
he had never visited the circuit bungalow with a woman.
I produced the accused Mahipala in Magistrate Courts Kalutara and got
him remanded to fiscal custody for 12 days. On the 12th day I filed
plaint against the accused under section 296 CPC for the murder of
Devasundara Padmini Somalata of Kuruwita.
After a lengthy non-summary proceedings the Magistrate Kalutara
committed the case to be heard in the Supreme Courts Kalutara.
Exactly one year and two months later the case was taken up in the
Azize Courts Kalutara before on English speaking jury. The case was
prosecuted by a senior crown counsel.
The first witness called was Dr. B.C. Perera JMO Kalutara. In his
evidence Dr. Perera stated that two shots had been fired into the temple
of the deceased woman which had penetrated the head and damaged the
brain.
Both shots were necessarily fatal and death had been instantaneous.
Siyadoris Appuhamy also gave evidence. He stated that he was in charge
of the circuit bungalow and on May 15, 1966 around 12.15 p.m., the music
master Mahipala who is know to him for the last four years and had
visited the bungalow with his wife two or three times earlier arrived
with his wife.
They had a late lunch, relaxed in the room for about eight hours had
an early dinner and left around 8.30 p.m. He added that both husband and
wife had quarrelled in the room. The bill totalled Rs. 57 and Mahipala
paid this amount by a Bank of Ceylon cheque.
He identified the cheque with his signature and also the endorsement
made by Mahipala in the visitors book maintained at the circuit
bungalow.
The third witness was Wilbert Mendis. He corroborated Siyadoris’
evidence and stated that the woman was found crying every time he
entered the room with meals.
The fourth witness called for the prosecution was the office
Assistant of the Kalutara Kachcheri. He told the Court that the accused
had been issued a gun permit by the Kachcheri and that the police took
away the fingerprint slip of the accused that was attached to the gun
application file maintained by the Kachcheri.
Verdict
The Registrar of Fingerprints in his evidence stated that the three
prints obtained from the empty petrol tin found at the scene of the
murder on 16.05.1966 were compared with the fingerprints of the accused
obtained from the gun licence file and were found to be identical.
The Assistant Manager Administration of the Bank of Ceylon head
office also gave evidence. He stated that the Bank of Ceylon cheque book
containing cheque leaves numbered 2776 to 2800 of account number 1780
had been issued to Kapuge Kelum Mahipala of No. 28, Gangabada Road,
Kalutara North and stated that the signature appearing on the relevant
cheque leaf is very similar to Mahiapala’s signature maintained at the
bank’s head office.
The last witness to be called was yours truly and with my evidence
state counsel closed the case for the prosecution.
The defence did not call the accused to give evidence from the
witness box as it empowers the prosecution to cross-examine him. But the
defence got the accused to give evidence from the accused’s box. His
Lordship the Judge ordered the jury to retire and come back after
arriving at a verdict.
Forty minutes elapsed before the jury returned. The chairman of the
jury informed court that they unanimously found the accused guilty of
murder.
The Judge sentenced the accused to be hanged in the precincts of the
Welikada Jail till he was dead.
The accused appealed against the sentence but a bench of three judges
in the court of appeal disallowed the application.
Names of the accused and victim are fictitious. All other names are
true. |