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Iranawila child killer still at large, Police hunt for itinerant coconut plucker
View(s):Police have so far been unable to trace the suspect wanted in connection with the rape and murder of a 10-year-old boy in Iranawila, Puttalam.
Iranawila: The magisterial inquiry being held at the spot where the body of the 10-year-old boy was found. Pic by Hiran Priyankara
The boy went missing from his home at Samadigama on February 25. Two days later, villagers found his body in a nearby wood. A postmortem conducted by Chilaw Judicial Medical Officer (JMO) Dr K. Wijewardena revealed the victim had been sexually abused and murdered. Wounds on his body indicated they were inflicted by a sharp weapon.The boy was last seen with a man at a nearby shop. The shop’s CCTV footage shows the child leaving with the man. Police say the suspect was not from the area but had been working as a coconut plucker. He did not stay in one place and attempts so far to trace his hometown have drawn a blank. A special police team under the Chilaw Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) has been appointed to arrest the suspect.
The Chilaw murder is just one of this week’s several incidents where children lost their lives or were abused.
A 41-year-old father committed suicide after poisoning his three-year-old daughter at their home in Homagama this week. The child was deformed and had undergone some 30 surgeries in hospital. The father, unable to bear the suffering the child was going through, was mentally devastated. The tragedy occurred while other family members were not in the house.
In another incident, a teacher was remanded by the Homagama Magistrate for allegedly molesting a boy in hospital. The suspect and the boy were both receiving treatment at the hospital where their beds were side by side. The father of the boy, who was receiving treatment for diabetes, was keeping vigil next to the boy and the incident had happened when the father had gone out of the hospital. He lodged a complaint with the hospital’s police post after the boy told him what happened.
Meanwhile, a nine-year-old student of the Buddhist Ladies Junior School in Dehiovita died after she fell while practising walking on two coconut shells connected to a rope. The unconscious child was rushed to Avissawella hospital but was pronounced dead on admission. Avissawella police are investigating.