LANKALIBRARY FORUM

Newborn, issue of rape, allegedly killed and buried

By Palitha Ariyawansa
DM / 27JUNE2005

Passara police HQI, Chief Inspector Wasantha Kandewatte is awaiting Attorney General’s advice on a case where three women suspects were remanded on a charge of killing and secretly burying a newborn baby which, according to the postmortem report, the cause of death could not be determined.

The baby was born to a 22-year-old, unmarried, blind woman in Agaratenna, Passara. On an anonymous petition received, Passara police conducted inquiries which revealed that immediately after the birth of the child, the blind woman, with help of her mother and an aunt, killed the infant and buried it under a jak tree in a garbage dump opposite their house. The police arrested the three women.

Police inquiries have revealed that the blind girl who gave birth to the child had been raped by a youth who visited the house on the promise of marrying one of her sisters. The mother who initially was not aware of the pregnancy had shown her to a doctor in Uri who had diagnosed her as being anaemic and prescribed medicine. They had also performed witchcraft on her too.

Police said that the infant’s body taken into custody by them was decomposed and the postmortem report has been forwarded to the Attorney General for advice.