A True story

Grave punishment for stealing toddy

Ananda JAYASENA- Rtd. Senior Supdt of Police

Bulathsinhala is situated in "Pas-Yodun-Korale" between Horana and Matugama, equidistant from both places being ten miles away.

It was a god-forsaken place even in the late nineteen sixties. Last bus coming from Matugama stops at Kalawellawa at 6.30 p.m and the passengers have to cross the river by ferry and walk the two miles to Bulathsinhala. Last bus from Horana terminates at Bulathsinhala at 7.30 p.m. After 8.00 p.m Bulathsinhala was a dead village.

Social life was practically nil. A dry battery operated radio was a luxury. When one proceeds two miles from the police towards Paragoda Siriwardana Mudalali's boutique is situated. From here you turn left and have to proceed to Yatagampitiya and from Yatagampitiya one has to proceed to another 400 yards to come to a large stream.

The other side of the stream is called Niggaha. The whole of Niggaha is crown land, full of timber. From here the Singharaja forest starts and extends interior and towards Sri Pada. The only inhabitants in Niggaha were males who cleared the crown land, demarcated an acre or two for themselves. There were a few scattered huts here and there. These unauthorized settlers had planted manioc and tapping kitul trees, which were freely available.

Cottage industry

Kitul toddy and tricle were more or less a cottage industry in Niggaha.

One Suduhakuruge Aron, a bachelor from a closeby village had cleared the chena of about three acres of Niggaha and had planted manioc. Also he had a house made of wattle and daub where at times he resided or spent the nights. For the last one week he had noticed that someone had been removing his toddy on the sly from the kitul trees he tapped. He lay in ambush near the kitul tree with his unlicensed gun. In 1968, I was the Officer-in-Charge of Bulathsinhala Police and a case of murder by shooting was reported from Niggaha around 4.00 p.m on November 16, 1967.

Police Sergeant 1064 Ariff and I left the station immediately in the police jeep. We had to leave the jeep in Yatagampitiya and had to cross the stream to go to Niggaha. We removed our shoes, waded the stream and got on to the other side and applied a thick layer of soap on our feet. We wore the socks and started our journey through the leech infested jungles.

Scene of murder

We walked about three miles in the jungle uphill and reached the scene of murder around 6.30 p.m. It was getting dark and about ten to fifteen men had already collected there.

I found the dead body of a well built person dressed in a dirty sarong, tucked up to the waist lying on the ground at the foot of the kitul tree. He was bare bodied up from the waist.

On closer examination, I found a streak of blood had come out of his mouth. There were about four droplets of hardened blood on the left side, of the chest, two inches below the left nipple, and also two droplets of dried blood at the back of the chest. The deceased was said to be one Hettiarachchige Geedirick Appuhamy.

One Karolis came forward and told me that, around this noon, around 12.00 when he was going to his chena situated next to Aron's Chena, heard a report of a gun and when he went in the direction, he saw Aron groaning in pain coming with a gun in hand and on seeing him he turned back and ran away.

When I proceeded in the direction where Aron came from, I heard someone groaning in pain and I went in the direction and saw Geedirick fallen and he appeared to be in great pain. I went to hem and he spoke to me with difficulty and said that Aron shot him when he was coming down Aron's kitul tree.

Saying so, he closed his eyes and died. I left Sergeant Arifff at the scene and came with witness Karolis to Yatagampitiya, where the jeep was parked. I recorded his statement at the house of David Mudalali at Yatagampitiya at 11.00 p.m that night.

The Magistrate, Matugama during this period was Richard Lionel Silva. He lived in Kalutara North, Police area. I came to Bulathsinhala Police and gave a message to O.I.C Kalutara North to inform the magistrate about this murder and also to request him to send an officer to hold the inquest and to order D.M.O. Pimbura, to hold the post mortem examination on the body of the deceased.

Post mortem

On receipt of my message through the Kalutara North Police, the Magistrate had already ordered the D.M.O. Pimbura to hold the post mortem examination and also directed Lal Wijegunawardena, the J.P.U.M. to visit the scene of murder and to hold the inquest.

Lal Wijegunawardena resided in Kaluwella, Bulathsinhala Police area. Being a native of Bulathsinhala, he knew Niggaha well.

The following morning Lal Wijegunawardena visited the scene of murder. The D.M.O. Pimbura at that time was Dr. G.P.W. Amarasinghe. He was in his early fifties and could not walk to the scene of murder. Hence an easy chair was tied to two long horizontal poles and he was carried to the spot by eight strong villagers.

Heart damaged

Dr. Amarasingha, held the post mortem examination on the body of the deceased and he gave his reports as follows. "The body was of a male person, well built, height 5' 2" and age between 40 to 45 years. He had the following injuries. (i) One pellet had gone through the chest entering the left front of the chest about three inches below the left nipple damaging the heart.(ii) One slug was found embedded in the inner side of the third floating rib.(iii) Two other pellets were found inside the chest cavity. (iv) The twenty first vertebrae in the spinal cord had been broken. Injury number (i), (ii) and (iii) could have been caused by discharge of a gun, most probably of a home made cartridge. Injury number four would have been caused due to a fall from a height.

On the face of the post mortem report, Wijegunawardena gave a verdict of homicide.

We made inquiries for suspect Aron. According to information received he had left the village on the day of the murder. Subsequently PC 1282 Andrew of my station had received credible information to the effect that suspect Aron was working in a brick-kiln at Anguruwatota.

Gun buried

Two days later P.C. 1282 Andrew and I, left Anguruwatota in civil clothes and arrested Aron after one and half days and brought him to my station. I recorded a detailed statement from Aron who was under my custody now. He stated that he noticed someone was stealing his treacle from his kitul trees. One day around 12 noon, he saw Geedirick coming down his kitul tree with a clay pot. Aron ran to his hut brought out his unlicensed gun and shot him and Geedirick fell down from the kitul tree. Aron ran towards the village and he saw Komangodage Karolis coming towards him. He took another path and ran towards his hut, collected three home made cartridges and the gun and covered all of them in a polythene bag and buried them in the jungle. He promised to show this spot to me. P.C. Andrew and I, went to the scene and took the gun and three cartridges as pointed out by him to us.

I produced Suduhakuruge Aron in the M.C. Matugama and got him remanded for a period of 12 days.

On the 13th day, I filed plaint against the accused under Section 296 of the Ceylon Penal Code and I gave my evidence at the Magistrate Courts, Matugama and moved courts to send the gun to the Government Analyst to find out whether this gun had been fired recently and whether pellets found in the body of the deceased and produced at the inquest by the D.M.O. are similar to the pellets found in the three cartridges taken from the accused.

Cartridges

I led the evidence in M.C. Matugama and after about four months at the conclusion, the Magistrate committed the case to the Supreme Court.

After a lapse of time, this case came up in the Supreme Courts, Kalutara. The accused was defended by E.S. Fernando who was the leading lawyer of Kalutara bar at that time. The prosecution was conducted by a Senior Crown Counsel.

At this trial D.M.O. Pimbura, Dr. Amarasinghe gave evidence. He was questioned by the defence for about two hours and wanted to find out as to how he came to the conclusion that the accused had been shot by a home made cartridge. The D.M.O. in reply stated that, he had held post mortem in about 50 shooting cases and if the shot had been fired by a factory loaded cartridge the pellets recovered from the body could be more or less similar. But in this case, he noticed that the spent pellets were very irregular in shape and size.

The next witness to be called was the Government Analyst. He stated that the fired three cartridges produced by Matugama Courts and all three cartridges had been fired from the gun produced in courts marked P2 and found the three cartridges had been home made. He compared the spent pellets of these three cartridges along with the pellets produced by Dr. Amarasinghe at the inquest and they were very similar.

The third witness to be called was yours truly. My evidence was led by the crown counsel and he asked me whether the accused was under duress which I answered in the negative. After my evidence was over the crown counsel addressed courts and informed that any production recovered in consequence to statement made by accused is admissible in law.

The defence did not want the accused to give evidence from the dock.

The judge addressed the jury for about half an hour and the jury retired.

When the jury returned they brought an unanimous verdict of guilty against the accused and the judge ordered Suduhakuruge Aron to be hanged in the precincts of the Welikada Prison on Monday 22nd January 1968.