The case of the golden necklace

Ananda Jayasena Senior Superintendent of Police (Retired)

In this article the Senior Superintendent of Police (Retired) recounts his experiences and encounters while he was in service. Here is an interesting story.

One may say that the glorious period of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID was in the early 1960s). At the helm was the Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of police, S. A. Dissanayake.

The scene of the year was 1963. We take you to the scene of the crime at Tebuwana. A scrupulously honest sub-Inspector T. A. de Silva was investigating the case of a stolen gold necklace. An adopted girl in a planter’s house was the accused. After an inquiry girl was produced in courts and remanded at a girl’s certified home. But she committed suicide whilst in custody.

The workforce in the planters estate was displaced over the course of action. They started sending letters and petitions to DIG (CID). The issue of the complaint was that the Officer In Charge (OIC) of Tebuwana Police was a personal friend of the complainant’s husband and that no proper inquiry was held, and the girl was remanded.

I was asked to hold an inquiry with a police constable, Seneviratne assisting me. In the course of our inquiries several people were questioned and their statements were recorded.

We went to the Tebuwana police station went through the relevant information books, “B” reports, notes of inquiry, inquest proceedings, post-mortem reports among other documents.

Tebuwana is a village in the Kalutara district with lots of tea and rubber estates with European and local planters. Trevor Cramer was one of them and he was the Superintendent of Miriswatte estate. He was 56 years old, married to a Sinhalese lady who had a daughter of 16 years named Daisy.

The Girls

In 1961 his wife died at her second childbirth and he remarried a Burgher girl named Ashrid who was 25 years younger to him. As his daughter was alone when she came back home after the holidays, they adopted a Tamil girl named Kamele. She was also pretty and was brought from an adjoining estate. Both girls clicked on well. Beside these two girls, there was one Laisa, a cook woman who had worked for Trevor Cramer in their house for the last eight years.

Time went by, after the arrival of Ashrid, the atmosphere of the house entirely changed. She started to hate Daisy, dislike Kamele and found fault with Laisa for petting the two girls.

On an Easter Sunday, there was a lunch given by one of the Superintendents in a closeby estate and Trevor and Ashrid Cramer were invited. Before leaving for lunch, Ashrid wore an expensive necklace belonging to Daisy’s dead mother. On seeing this, Daisy pointed this to Laisa, on the sly.

A little while later, Laisa’s eldest son Ratnapala came form Wadduwa to fetch his mother as his younger brother was sick and awaited the arrival of the master and the lady. Around 3.00 p.m. they returned after the Easter lunch and on hearing Laisa’s son’s sickness, he decided to start off immediately, along with Daisy who had to be taken to her boarding house at Bambalapitiya. On route to Bambalapitiya, they dropped Laisa and Ratnapala at Wadduwa at their house and proceeded to Bambalapitiya and dropped Daisy at the Convent hostel and returned to the estate.

Though Laisa came home to see her sick son, she was worried about Kamele, as both Daisy and she were not at home.

When Trevor was about to go the muster in the morning, Ashrid told him that she kept her necklace she wore for the lunch on the table and it is gone missing. She was adamant that it was there after he left to Wadduwa and no one else came to the bungalow. Trevor questioned Kamele about the necklace, and she felt very sorry as she has been suspected of tasking it and she started to cry incessantly.

Trevor lost his temper suddenly and dealt a hard slap on her cheek and went for the muster.

When Trevor was away at work, Astrid questioned Kamele about the necklace and said that she will inform the Police and her father too, will be taken to the Police and thrashed. Through fear she had admitted having taken it.

Astrid rang up Tebuwana Police Station and the OIC and the Sergeant had gone to Courts and the Senior P. C. Romiel took up inquiries. He met Ashrid Cramer and recorded her statement and she valued the stolen necklace at Rs. 2,500.

Fear

P. C. Romiel started to question Kamele and she fainted through fear. When she gained consciousness she admitted having taken it. Romiel knew that she was lying through fear and he returned to the station under the pretext of taking the Police Matron.

When he came back to the station the OIC had returned from Courts and Romiel told him that it appeared that she had not taken the necklace. They went to Miriswatte estate for inquiries.

On their arrival at the SD’s bungalow, Mr. and Mrs. Cramer were present. The OIC questioned Kamele in their presence and through fear she admitted that she took it. Kamele was brought to the Police Station. At the police station when her statement was recorded she denied having taken the necklace. She told the police that she lied to prevent her father being taken into custody.

On the following morning Kamele was produced before Magistrate, Kalutara and was remanded to a girl’s Borstel home.

After four days later when having come home, Laisa found Kamele not there.

When inquired from madam, she said that Kamele stole one of her necklaces and was handed over to the Police. Laisa lost her bearings and told the mistress of the house that she knew Kamele for the last couple of years and she will never ever steal even a pin. She stepped out of the house and said that she does not want her dues and that she will not return.

A little while later the father of Kamele, Vadivel came to the bungalow and handed over Rs. 2,000 and begged Ashrid to get the girl released from Courts. She point blank refused and wanted Rs. 1,000 more.

When Vadivel informed that the Rs. 2,000 was brought after pawning his wife’s jewellery, she still refused.

When Trevor came back from the office, Astrid informed that Laisa came back and when she told her that Kamele was taken to the Police Station for stealing a necklace, she refused to work and went back to Wadduwa, never to return. On hearing this Trevor was very upset. He did want to quarrel with his wife but said that, it is not easy to employ a good woman like Laisa.

‘Stolen’ Necklace

One week after the theft of the necklace, Astrid was searching the almirah for a misplaced document and she suddenly came across the very necklace and it struck her that she kept it there for safe keeping. She informed this to her husband.

Whatever said and done, Trevor was a man of high principles.

He promptly contacted OIC Tebuwana and explained matters and said that his wife had kept the necklace for safe keeping, and traced it today when she accidentally traced same. Romiel was sent to record her statement with regard to the finding of the necklace.

OIC Tebuwana wanted to notify Court next morning that the necklace was not stolen, but traced later and to get Kamele discharged from Courts.

Suicide

That same evening a message was received from Hikkaduwe Police Station informing that suspect Kamele who was produced by Tebuwane Police on a charge of theft had committed suicide by hanging in a bathroom and wanted an officer from Tebuwana for the inquest. A copy of this message received from Hikkaduwe Police was handed over to the deceased’s father, P. Vadivel, PC 1464 Romiel was sent to the inquest to Hikkaduwa.

At 9.00 a.m. the Magistrate, Galle, had come out and held an on the spot inquest, viewed the body, recorded statements of witnesses.

A letter written by Kamele, stating that she is committing suicide was produced at the inquest by the Warden of the Borstel institute.

The post-mortem examination was held by the JMO Galle and he pronounced that the vertebrae Nos. 3 & 4 had been broken as the result of hanging. After the Magisterial inquest the body of Kamele was handed over to P. Vadivel.

On hearing this sad episode, the labourers of Miriswatte estate, and two adjoining estates struck work for three days as a protest against Tebuwana Police and the Superintendent of Miriswatte Estate.

They organized eleven hiring cars to accompany the dead body of Kamele to her home, where her parents lived.

When the body reached her house there was unrest in he Miriswatte estate and two other adjoining estates and the Police Riot Squads were kept ready in close proximity.

A procession of eleven cars accompanied the dead body of Kamele to her father’s lineroom. Workers in hundreds were walking along the road to get a view of the body and Kamele’s coffin at Vadivel’s lineroom.

The funeral of Kamele was to take place in the public cemetery at Tebuwana, which was by the side of the Tebuwana, Kalutara road.

On the day of the funeral, estate workers of three estates struck work as a protest for her death, and took part in the funeral and the procession.

The only notable absentees were Mr. and Mrs. Trevor Cramer. He had left the estate and gone out of the estate to return when things came back to normal.

After the cremation of the body of Kamele, a tomb had been built over the grave and a ‘bust’ photograph of Kamele had been affixed to the tomb and covered with a transparent glass. Trevor Cramer could not work in the estates of Tebuwana area. Hence he was transferred out of Miriswatte to an estate Lellopitiya in the Ratnapura district.

We forwarded our report to DIG CID through OIC Unit (1). There was no negligence or short-coming on the part of OIC Tebuwana.

(Names of the estate and Superintendent’s name had been changed to cover liability).