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What magic dances in the batons of Lanka’s police that move those they arrest on suspicion to willingly spill the beans, the whole beans and nothing but the beans and sign damning confessions to gruesome murder? Especially when scientific tests subsequently done on their gene samples cast doubts upon the veracity of their admissions made without ado in the confessional cells at police stations?

Take the case of Seya, the five-year-old girl whose horrific murder last month shocked the nation. This Tuesday, October 13, it will be exactly a month since her naked body was found raped and murdered and then dumped near a canal not even 200 metres away from her home. During this time, in the midst of growing public demands and street demos for a speedy production of the murderer, none can say that the police have been dragging their coppers feet or been bone idle in the pursuit of the child killer.

On the contrary they have been hyperactive and gone over the top and beyond the call of their Sam Brown duty to bring the villain to justice. Far from twiddling their thumbs, the long arm of the law has assiduously been at work and spared no pains to thrash the truth out of the murder mystery that plunged the nation in grief.

In their eagerness to show the watching public the effectiveness of the investigative skills they possess they swiftly pounced on a 17 year old boy on September 19 who happened to have ‘incontrovertible proof’ of guilt. The all conclusive evidence: having Seya’s photograph in his mobile phone and in his laptop. At the same time, perhaps as a spare, they also arrested a 33-year-old man on suspicion. Both were neighbours.

On September 23, another suspect Dinesh Priyashantha also known as ‘Kondaya’ enters the frame. He possesses the necessary pedigree to qualify for a place amongst ‘the usual suspects’. The police were searching for a drug addicted pervert and as luck would have it he fitted the bill. He had served one year’s time in jail for attempting to abduct a child in 2013. He also had a track record of secretly watching women bathe in the river. He was a recluse and, as his mother said, he never brushed his teeth and rarely washed his face or bathed. He was also found to have been in the habit of making regular visits to see his sister who lived in the vicinity of Seya’s home. The police struck gold, it seemed, when the man on his own free will and without any prompting by the police readily confessed to Seya’s murder, providing the police with a signed confession recounting in graphic detail how he had repeatedly raped and strangled little Seya in a nearby paddy field.

Hardly able to contain their glee and making no effort to disguise their patent pride at cracking the case with this sudden windfall painlessly landing on their lap, the police took the unprecedented step of releasing the ‘kill and tell’ story to the newspapers to be trumpeted from the rooftops.

After all, wasn’t this the result of their ingenious detective methods and the triumph of their public relations skills in making suspects open their hearts and bare their souls in the same manner conscience stricken Christians often do to atone for their sins by admitting their transgressions to priests in the confessional box at church?

This is what the police revealed to the media on September 24 the day after Kondaya was arrested. Here is an excerpt:
In his confession Kondaya said, “My sister lives in Kotadeniyawa and I have visited her house on several occasions. I visited my sister on September 11 and on the way back, I saw a light coming from a room in Seya’s house.

“There was an open window and when I peeped in, I noticed three children and a woman sleeping on a bed. I noticed that one of the little girls sleeping in the bed was very beautiful. I too was yearning to be with this little girl. I like children.”In addition, I also have a fascination of secretly watching women sleeping and bathing. I tried to jump through that open window, but, did not succeed. Then, I tried to open the front door and found it unlocked and entered the room discreetly. I wanted to rape her on the bed, but, she suddenly woke up and I panicked. Seya’s mother was also sleeping in the same bed with her, but, did not wake up. I then carried the child out of the house.

“The child was fast asleep as I carried her out of the house on my shoulder, but woke up again when I brought her outside. I tied her t-shirt around her neck in order to keep her quiet. I then took Seya to a thicket and raped her. She woke up again and I tied her neck again. I think she was dead by then. I then raped the girl several times in various ways.”

The next day on 25th September, Kondaya was brought by the police to the Negombo hospital to undergo medical tests. With such a damning confession under their Sam Brown belt, the police believed, as did the public, that the mystery of Seya’s murderer had been solved. But that was before the results of the DNA tests arrived.

The police were left with their khakis down when the scientific test done at a private lab in Borella revealed on Tuesday that Kondaya’s DNA sample did not match with those found on Seya’s body. But no matter. The police had another suspect to take Kondaya’s place. His elder brother, Saman Jayatilleke.

As luck would have it, he had already been arrested on Saturday, October 3, by the police blessed as they were with foresight. And when the police cracked their new fortune cookie open the message inside was the elder brother’s candid confession that it was he who had abducted, raped and killed Seya.

On Monday the police revealed to the media the confession Kondaya’s brother Saman had made to the police. According to the report published in the media, the police said that Saman had entered the house with the intention of raping Seya’s mother whom he barely knew. “When I entered their house that night through an open window, I saw Seya’s mother watching TV. I waited till she switched off the lights,” Saman had said.

“But when I saw Seya, lying on the bed with her mother and the other children, my thoughts turned to her,” Saman had confessed to the Police. Instead of molesting Seya’s mother, the suspect had abducted the child with the intention of raping her. According to his confession, he had carried the girl in his arms and raped her in a paddy field close to her house. When the girl began to shout, he had strangled her neck with the t-shirt she was wearing. The suspect had admitted that he raped the girl several times, even after strangling her. Then he had thrown the body of the five-year-old old girl into the jungle.

Thus on October 5, the police had in their possession two confessions from two brothers, both claiming to be the one who raped and murdered little Seya. In their given confessions, both said they had seen the open window. One said he had tried to jump through it but failed. The other said he had jumped through it. Both said they saw Seya and her mother. One said they were sleeping. The other said they were watching television. Both said they had lifted the girl from the bed and carried her out of her home. Both said they had raped her, one said it was in a thicket, the other said it was in a paddy field. Both said the girl began to shout and both said they had tied her neck with her T shirt. Both said they had strangled her.

This would have certainly put the police in a quandary. With two identical confessions staring them in the face, the question was who was the real murderer? Who, the pretender? Would it take a fifty-fifty heads or tails tossup to decide? Fortunately for the police the negative result of the DNA test done on Kondaya arrived the following day, ruling him out. The focus has now shifted on Saman and he was DNA tested on the Tuesday and remanded till October 19, pending the DNA result. Kondaya too was remanded till October 19.

Meanwhile, the fate of the first two suspects, the teenage boy and the 33 year old man, was also decided by the results of their DNA tests which proved negative. They were freed by the Minuwangoda magistrate on October 1. They have both complained that they had been beaten and subjected to torture while in police custody. Although the Kotadeniyawa Police has denied these allegations, Police Chief N. K. Illangakoon has now ordered an inquiry into alleged human rights violations of the two.

That then is the state of play but the police are still not content to sit on their laurels. Still smarting from Kondaya’s confession experience, they have now realised there is many a distinction twixt confession and conviction. They have now sought and obtained a court order to subject Seya’s father to a DNA test. Thus no immediate filing of indictments can be expected. It will have to stay suspended till the vital DNA result, a simple yes or no verdict which would seal the fate of the murderer arrives from the private genetic lab.

Besides making a pig’s breakfast of the investigation, what raised many a legal brow was why the police had thought fit to release the confession of Kondaya to the press. They committed the same faux pas when they gave details of the confession Kondaya’s brother made to the police after his arrest last Saturday, seemingly impervious, in their search for kudos, to the possibility that such premature revelations may prejudice and imperil the legal case when it came before court.

The second important question is how were the confessions obtained? Though Kondaya and Saman have not made any complaint to the magistrate nor to the Police Chief, were their admissions of guilt given freely without any physical persuasion? Is it fear of any further assault upon returning to the remand cell from the court house that keeps them silent? In this new age of transparency and accountability these are areas which must be inquired into; and the proper procedures for interrogating suspects in police custody must be introduced to prevent any possibility of confessions being extracted by putting suspects on torture racks at police stations.

In the past there have been instances where murder suspects taken into custody have mysteriously drowned while taking the police on midnight rides to show where they had buried the murder weapon in some nearby river. Their sudden deaths certified, as death by accident, has also resulted in the death of the investigation itself. As far as the police are concerned, the case had been solved, the file is closed; and another star lit in the OIC’s personal career record qualifying him for promotion to a higher post. Perhaps had the suspects been tested for DNA, it may have exonerated them from the charged crime. Perhaps the real murderers are still at large, still free and still laughing in disbelief at their own stroke of luck.

The decision to forward DNA testing to a private laboratory must also be reviewed. No one really understands the DNA testing methods. At the altar of infallible science, one genuflects with blind faith and to question the divine truths science deities dole out in good measure has become the new blasphemy. But it should be remembered that though science may have got it right, blood, semen, hair and other samples necessary for testing are handled by human hands which are but fallible. There is also the possibility of pressure being exerted through various means on those conducting the tests and signing the report to distort the result.

This is not a simple case like outsourcing a government’s propaganda campaign to a private advertising agency. In an atmosphere where the judiciary, the prosecutors, the defence counsels, the police and the general public as a whole have long been conditioned to believe and accept the report of a DNA test as infallible with the same faith and fervour the Catholics believe in the infallibility of the Pope, isn’t it rather alarming to note that a man’s innocence or guilt primarily rests on the basis of a DNA result stating ‘yes’ or ‘no’ issued by a private lab working for profit?

Seya’s fateful night Little Seya: With her bloom nipped in the bud, a nation plunged in grief On the night of September 11, Seya had happily watched television with her mother and seven-year-old brother and two-year-old sister. No doubt they talked about the celebrations planned for Seya’s fifth birthday which was to fall on the 16th of the month, five days away. Seya's Mother: Suspect's first choice Seya loved to dress up and had been worrying her mother for a new dress to be worn on that day. Her grandmother had promised to cook a special meal for the family. At 8.30 pm she felt sleepy and her mother took Seya and her 7-year-old brother and 2-year-old sister to bed and slept with them, retiring for the night. Seya’s father was not at home; neither were her grandparents who had gone to attend a funeral. The door was left unlocked to let them in without disturbing the household. The grandparents returned around 10pm and went to bed. Seya’s father came home after his night shift as a hiring car driver dropping garment factory girls home, at 12.10 am. He went to the bedroom where the children and the mother were sleeping. Noticing Seya was not on the bed he asked his wife where the little girl was. She replied that most probably Seya had gone to sleep with the grandmother as she sometimes did. They found no reason to double check and went to bed. In the morning they discovered that Seya was missing. Raising the alarm they checked the surrounding areas with the help of their neighbours. They found no trace of Seya. Then at 7.12 am they dialled 119. Thus began the hunt for little Seya’s killer.