Body on the floor

Ananda JAYASENA-Snr. Supdt. of Police (Rtd.)

From Akuressa, I was transferred at HQI Panadura w.e.f. 05.01.1973. Compared with Akuressa, Panadura was a heavy station. At Panadura the strength of the Inspectorate itself was 20, whereas the entire strength of Akuressa was 17 (01 IPP/SII, 01 PSS, 12 PCC ad 01 PCD).

My IP Crimes at Panadura was a loyal, hardworking officer, IP T.N. Rajee, who was not at all frightened of work. Panadura Police area covered about 25 sq. miles, bordering Bolgoda bridge in the East, Pinwatta Bridge in the South and the 13th Mile post in the North.

Theadore Vincent de Silva was a methodical man who had come up in life the hard way. He started life as an English Trained Teacher and through utter perseverance rose to the rank of the Inspector of Schools. In 1972, when he was 35 years of age, he married a lady named Vajira de Zoysa. She too was a teacher, attached to Wadduwa Central. They rented a house at Horana Road, Wekada, Panadura and shifted there. This was a large house by the main road. Neighbours being Damien Perera and his wife on one side and a Montessori School on the other.

Theadore and Vajira lived with an elderly cook woman named Jane Nona.

By 3.30 p.m both husband and wife are back at home from their respective places of work.

On March 16, 1973, was a Saturday. Theadore de Silva had left to Education Department at Malay Street to correct some answer scripts. A little later, Jane, the cook woman left the house to Morawinna to see her daughter, with the undertaking to come back by 4.00 p.m.

Around 9.00 a.m the paper man had come and delivered the newspaper to Vajira.

At 9.45 a.m. the Postman had come, rung his cycle bell and had handed over a letter of Vajira. Both these incidents had been seen by Miss Marlene de Silva, a teacher who was having her children's class in the open air, next door.

Around 2.30 p.m. when Theadore returned home from Malay Street, he found the front door fully opened. He parked his car in the garage and walked inside the house. Normally, his wife comes out on hearing the arrival of the car. Theadore felt that something was wrong and he called "Vajira" and entered the house and walked towards the bathroom. To his dismay, he saw the dead body of Vajira on the floor of the bathroom, resting on her back, left leg fully stretched, right leg bent at the knee. Her mouth had been half opened and the tongue protruding.

A streak of blood had come out of the mouth. A large bruise and a swelling had been observed on the front of the neck.

Theadore raised cries and the neighbours came pouring in and one of them had rung up Panadura Police at 2.32 p.m. This was reflected in the station telephone register.

IP Rajee and PC 4884 Perera had left on enquiry. On their way, they stopped the jeep, informed me of the murder and went to the scene.

I too proceeded to the scene a little later.

The house in question is large and the rooms too were large. Unless someone comes close to the bathroom the dead body cannot be observed. There were no visible tell-tale marks or marks of a disturbance. It appeared that the deceased had been taken by surprise.

IP Rajee had already contacted the Registrar of Fingerprints and the Police Training School Kalutara for Police dogs. He had already recorded the statement of Miss Marlene Silva and had sent PC 4884 Perera to record the statements of the Postman and the Paperman. In the course of the day Police dogs "bullet" and "Rover" were brought but could not get any scent. The RFP who visited the scene found two male and three female sets of finger prints on a mirror found dropped on the bathroom floor.

I met L.M. Jayaratne, the Magistrate Panadura and requested him to order J.M.O. Colombo to hold the post mortem examination as a lot of this case has to depend on medical evidence. This was allowed and the dead body was taken to the General Morgue at Francis Road, Colombo.

Dr. W.D.L. Fernando held the post mortem examination. Both IP Crimes and I were physically present. The JMO gave the cause of death as asphyxia due to manual strangulation. Also he found the cricord cartilage damaged. The victim had been three months pregnant and had been sexually assaulted at the time of death.

The dead body was finger printed and released.

Later RFP identified three female finger prints found at the scene as those of the deceased.

One week elapsed and no information was forthcoming.

On the 24th morning OIC Nawalapitiya Police rang up and asked me whether any incident took place at Panadura town on or about the 16th of this month, as a Tamil boy named Madasamy Perumal of Trechborne Estate, Nawalapitiya, suspects something. I sent IP Rajee and PC Perera to Nawalapitiya to bring this boy. The boy was brought around 7 p.m. and he stated that he worked under one Sahul Abdeen at Moratuwa who is a bottle and paper collector. Having worked for about three months, on the 16th of this month they were wheeling the 'gunny bag' cart and came to Wekada, Panadura. A lady from a house called them to sell some antiques and Sahul went inside the house whilst he was standing on the road with the cart. After about half an hour Sahul came back, he was highly excited and turned the cart back and came to his shop. To be continued tomorrow