News

A poor 15 year-old girl student of Siripura MMV in Polonnaruwa, committed suicide by setting herself on fire, after she was allegedly raped by her father’s brother – and the family later went through days of bureaucratic ordeals to obtain the release of the body for cremation.

Before she died she was able to make a statement to the police that she was raped by her uncle. She lived with burn injuries for some days during which time she made a statement on the incident to police. Only her 12-year-old brother was at home with the girl.

On that fateful day her uncle found her alone at home with her brother. He had sent the boy to buy a cigarette, thus creating the right opportunity for him. The family lives in Mudungama in the Dehiattakandiya area. The parents are very poor and have no occupation but do manual work to earn a living. The suspect was taken to custody on August 11 and remanded after questioning. The alleged rape victim had not divulged the incident to her parents as she was threatened by her uncle not to do so. The day after the incident, her mother had got up early and looked for her. She was shocked to see her daughter in flames. The girl died of her burn injuries at the Polonnaruwa hospital on August 26.

Added to the nightmarish experience of the girl’s demise, the parents had to undergo much inconvenience due to red tape in obtaining the body from the hospital. The family had to undergo much misery shuttling from home to hospital - a distance of 50 kms - for five days.

The coroner who conducted the inquiry on August 29 requested a report be submitted to him after a post mortem. The JMO did not want to perform the post mortem on the girl’s body due to the controversial nature of her death.

However it is learnt that the post mortem on four youths who were drowned in the Parakrama Samudra on August 26 was carried out without delay by the same JMO on the Health Minister’s instructions.

“We had to pawn the girl’s ear studs to find money to go to the Polonnaruwa hospital, but we were unable to get the body even today”, lamented the girl’s parents.