Women preying on women

Are the police turning a blind eye?

| by A Special Correspondent

(October 01, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Srini Wasana Amaratunga was killed by unidentified group on September 24. 24th September 2011. A teacher at Kochchikade. Loyola College, Mrs Amaratunga was a mother of two children and niece of Rev. Fr. Sarath Iddamalgoda and her body was discovered near a canal the following day.

Could the average citizen rely on

the police or is the police the personal

prerogative of politicians and their

cohorts in the underworld?

She had left home for Negombo town to pay some bills on September 24 after breakfast. Before she left she had told her mother that she need not cook since she would be bringing home lunch. But she had not arrived home that day and the worried family members made a complaint to the police. Her colleagues too were searching for her when they they found her body near the Wattala canal. According to police their patrol had not found a body near the canal up to 3.00 am on the following day.

Police said there were no visible external injuries on her body and there was no evidence of her having been raped. However, there were some burn marks around her mouth. According to the government analyst’s department where her body was sent for examination she had been dead three hours after breakfast. Also, her earrings, gold bracelet, chain, and two rings were missing. But there were no fingerprints.

In the last two months alone, there were similar incidents of robbery of personal belongings in the Kalubowila and Ragama districts but Mrs Amaratunga’s murder was the first of its kind. The police so far have drawn a blank on the mystery of these crimes.

Human Rights activists believe that a gang of women could very well be behind these crimes but there is no reliable information to prove this. It is believed these women are followed and then enticed with narcotic drugs before the robberies. The gang act in a systematic method where one group is responsible for befriending and drugging the women and then another given the responsibility of stealing their valuables including gold jewellery before abandoning them in a desolate spot.

There is more to these incidents than meets the eye and state protection for women and children leave a lot to be desired. In the last two or three months alone, more than 15 cases of murder, abuse and rape were reported in the media.

Laws are aplenty in our country vis-à-vis protection to women and children and religions practiced here profess non-violence but violence has beset our nation since independence and it sees no sense of abating despite having ended a reign of terror for over four decades.

Could the average citizen rely on the police or is the police the personal prerogative of politicians and their cohorts in the underworld?