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The temple bell tolled – but it was too late
The single mother of a child aged just one year and nine months weeps. A little hamlet near Beruwala is in mourning.
The 23-year-old mother, a resident of Akkara 80, Munhena in Maggona, will not see her daughter, Heshani Pabasara, again.
Heeding a court order, the mother, Samanthika Priyadarshani, had been sending the child to a nearby temple to meet her father. On the third meeting the father, in a lunatic rage, dashed the child against a rock.
Tharuka Dilshan shows the spot where the tragedy occurred and (left inset) the little victim. Pix by Susantha Liyanawatte
Police said that the father was seeking revenge against his wife for ending their marriage. Family members said that the two were cousins and had married against the wish of their parents.
Today, they will be burying little Heshani in the family burial plot.
The toddler’s murder shocked everyone this week, and the father’s choice of place to commit the crime, the Diwiyagala, Sri Abinawarama Viharaya, appalled everyone, especially Buddhists.
“Mahapolowawath uhulan na me wechcha siddhiya (this incident is too unbearable even for this earth),” the temple’s chief incumbent, Ven. Palinda Nuwara Jinasena Nahimi, said.
Samanthika and her ex-husband were separated. The husband had weekly visitation rights to see his child. Sunday was the day for the visits, and the handover of the child used to take place in the temple premises.
“The practice was that Samanthika’s mother and sister go to hand over the child to the father. They go back to collect the child in the evening. The meetings were held in the temple premises,” explained Inspector W.A.D.A.S. Ranaweera of the Beruwela police.
He said that day the husband, who was a labourer at a fibre shop, had wanted to meet his estranged wife, Samanthika. When the ex-wife’s relatives came to the temple last Sunday to hand over the child he had asked them to send Samanthika in the evening to take back the child. He had later telephoned her to come and meet him but she had refused. In uncontrollable rage he had dashed their child against a boulder near where he was standing.
Sixteen-year-old Tharuka Dilshan, who lives near the temple, witnessed the incident.
“This boulder is in the temple premises. I go there to fly kites. I was there last Sunday. I was alone except for a man carrying a baby. The baby was crying,” he said.
The inconsolable mother
“The man asked me where I lived and I told him that my house was near the other side of the temple. I asked him where he lived and he shouted back, ‘ubata wadak na eka’ (that’s not for you to know),” Dilshan said.
He said that the man had tried to chase him away.
At one point he had asked Dilshan to go away and fetch him a three-wheeler. Dilshan had refused. He said it was clear that the man only wanted to send him off the scene.
“We were there for around 45 minutes. He kept asking me to go and I kept refusing. Eventually he took out his phone and called someone,” Dilshan explained.
This was when the man had called Samanthika. Dilshan remembers what he said.
“Samanthi, lamaya geniyanna enna” – pause – “Umbata wadak nathnan matath wadak ne. Honda wadak karanawa mama” (‘Samanthi, come and take the child … If you do not want to do this I do not want it either. I’ll teach you a good lesson’).
Teenage Dilshan was not prepared for what happened next. Replacing the phone in his pocket the man picked up the child. Throwing her up in the air, he caught her by the legs and dashed her head on the rock.
“I tried to save the child – I was only three feet away. But I was too late.
“My clothes were drenched in blood.
“Then the man tried to kill me. He chased me with a rock in his hand saying that he would kill me too. I ran. He threw the rock and missed,” Dilshan recalled.
Dilshan called out to a man passing by and the man asked him to sound the temple bell. Hearing the sound of the bell, villagers rushed to the temple, seized the father and asked him to produce the child.
“He carried the bleeding baby in his arms. She didn’t move or make any sound. A woman who was there said the baby was still alive. She took the baby on a bike to the Beruwela hospital,” Dilshan said.
From the Beruwala hospital the baby was transferred to the Nagoda hospital where she was pronounced dead.
Kaluthara Additional Magistrate Ayesha Abdeen ordered the suspect to be remanded until September 4.
This tragedy was the latest in series of infanticides.
On August 17 a mother of two from Wellawaya drowned her four-year-old son and then attempted suicide in the Denuwala coastal area. The police said the child was diseased and unable to walk. Fishermen in the area rushed both to Gonnagahahena District Hospital but the boy had died.
The mother, 32-year-old M. Somalatha, survived. She was remanded by the Matara Additional Magistrate.
On March 26 a father killed his one-year-old baby by dashing him on the road. The father, a resident of Maha Oya in Ampara, had been returning from the market when the child had started to cry. Losing his temper the man had shaken the child and flung him on to the road.
The child was rushed to the Ampara Hospital and later transferred to Peradeniya where he succumbed to his injuries.
On March 9 in Dewanipela, Kataragama, a drunken father murdered his wife and baby and then set fire to his house. His crippled mother-in-law was killed in the fire. Police said an argument between the husband and wife had led to the incident.
“Most of the time the child’s life is taken as a medium of revenge. The child is killed to hurt the mother because they have a very close bond,” said the Head of Sociology and Anthropology of Jayewardenapura University, Prof. N. W. Jayasundara.
He said the police alone could not reduce the number of these tragic cases and that the community should act.
“If there are bodies such as NGOs at village level to help parents who are mentally ill and need assistance these cases can be controlled,” he said.
The Minister of Child Development and Women’s Affairs Tissa Karalliyadda such cases had not increased in number: media exposure had brought them into the light. He added that programmes have been introduced to help parents and educate them to handle problems.
“We are not in a country where parents are told to leave their children in orphanages. If a family is economically deprived we try to help them to find an income. We have a programme to give interest-free loans to single mothers but finances are not the only reason that makes parents kill their children,” the minister said.
President Rajapaksa recently allocated Rs. 1743 million to develop women and children programmes, and Rs. 700m was allocated to the Ministry of Child Development and Women’s Affairs help prevent child molestation and abuse of women.