News
Hotel disputes tourist’s tale of events leading to wife’s death
A Government Analyst report to determine why a British woman died during her honeymoon in Sri Lanka will take three more weeks to complete, with mystery continuing to shroud the incident.
An open verdict was given into the death of Usheila Patel, 31, by Judicial Medical Officer J.S.D. Peiris. The case was taken up before Acting Magistrate Somasiri Uduwella. Orders have been issued to send parts of the deceased’s organs to the Government Analyst’s Department for further investigation.
The happy couple
Galle Additional Magistrate Pavithra Sanjeewani Pathirana this week permitted Ms. Patel’s husband, Khilan Chandaria, 33, to leave the country after police said they had no objections to this.
He was due to leave after his wife’s remains were sent back to their country.
The couple had booked into Amari Galle, a resort hotel in Gintota, on April 23 and Ms. Patel was admitted to hospital on April 25 after taking ill.
Serious contradictions emerged between the statements made to police by Mr. Chandaria and those tendered by the hotel.
The hotel, in a statement issued to the media, contradicted statements made by Mr. Chandaria which appeared mainly in the foreign media and quoted in local newspapers.
Senior Attorney-at-Law Ajith Pathirana said his client, Mr. Chandaria, had made a full statement to police about what had transpired from the time of the couple’s arrival in the country on April 23.
Mr Russell Cool, Area General Manager of Amari Galle, in a statement emailed to The Sunday Times, also explained the sequence of events that had transpired while contradicting claims made by Mr. Chandaria to the international media.
Among the contradictions between the two statements was that Mr. Chandaria had said that his wife had complained of a bad smell in their room on the second day and that even after the room had been cleaned the smell had persisted and the couple had to go onto their balcony to escape it.
Mr. Cool, however, said the room had previously been occupied by another couple – indicating no complaint had been made then – and that the claim of a smell in the room had not appeared in Mr. Chandaria’s statement to the police but only made to media two weeks later.
“It is claimed by Mr. Chandaria that maintenance attended the room due to a smell. No maintenance has attended the room in any capacity during this guest stay,” the statement by Mr. Cool said.
Mr. Chandaria, in his statement, also says, “There was air pollution on that day in the hotel room. They were working to repair the lift and smoke was coming with dust from there. My room was about 20 feet away from the lift on the 5th floor.”
Mr. Chandaria, in his statement to police, also explained how the couple had fallen ill leading to their admission to hospital. He said on the first day of the stay they had gone out for a meal in Galle and on the second day they had fallen ill.
They had spent some time by the pool on the morning of the second day, and on their return to their room, found it being cleaned. That afternoon they had ordered a club sandwhich with French fries from the hotel while spending the afternoon in the hotel.
That evening, they had drunk vodka (from their own supplies and Sprite before going downstairs in the expectation of having dinner at the hotel. At the reception, however, they had decided to go out for their meal.
“As we were gonna ask for a taxi to take us there I told her I don’t feel too well and rather just go back to the room and asked if she was going to be ok to order room service which she didn’t mind. Once getting back in the room I went to the toilet because I felt I was going to vomit,” Mr. Chandaria said.
Usheila Patel
From then onwards he and his wife had vomited several times and had informed reception and had been told they could take a taxi to hospital as the time for curfew (imposed following the Easter Sunday terror attacks) was approaching.
“We didn’t feel well enough to leave the room and assumed the feeling may stop. We then continued to vomit a further 10-15 times each. Sometimes we vomited blood. We also started to both develop a fever in this time,” he said.
“At roughly 6 a.m. my wife called reception again and argued that we are both too ill. We need medical help and we can’t move so we can’t come downstairs and someone needs to help us out of the room if we have to go to the hospital. I believe three staff members came to our room with two wheelchairs and escorted us into the taxi where I was led to believe they drove us to a private hospital named Coop Hospital Galle. My wife was taken before me and was admitted to Karapitiya Hospital around 7.33 a.m. Later on the same day (25th) I found that my wife has passed away,” Mr. Chandaria said.
The hotel denied the claim that hotel had asked him to get a taxi to hospital on the evening of April 24. “The guest called at approximately 10 p.m. (on April 24), stating that he was ill. We offered transport via our hotel car fleet to the hospital, which they declined and instead requested more toilet paper.
“At approximately 6.45 a.m. on April 25, Ms. Patel contacted reception for assistance. The team who attended to the couple quickly identified the need to send them to the hospital for immediate medical attention,” the hotel said.
Police are continuing investigations.
Galle Police Crime Division Officer-in-Charge Dinesh Silva said statements from hotel staff and other relevant persons had been taken and CCTV footage was being checked.
He said samples of vodka and leftovers of food consumed by the couple were among items taken for analysis.