Dysfunctional Criminal Prosecutions system enables widespread impunity for serious crimes
( August 28, 2012, Kandy, Sri Lanka Guardian) A young Tamil girl of 23 S. Umadevi, of Nawalapitiya, Imbulpitiya Estate was abducted, raped and murdered on the 12th of September 2001 at Kopiwatte, Mallanda in Nawalapitiya on her way home after attending her typing class in Nawalapitiya Town.Exactly after one month since the rape incident of Jesudasan Rita at Talawakelle.Umadevi went in the morning for her usual typing classes but she did not return home in the evening. Her body was found on the following day at Mallanda Nawalapitiya.
Umadevi's parents made a complaint with the Nawalapitiya Police on the morning of the 13th September 2012, after exhausting all of their own inquiries as to her whereabouts. The father of the victim stated that the police officer who recorded the complaint gave them an unfavorable reception, she was abusive and not willing to accept their complaint. When she was shown a photograph of the young woman who was missing, the Police officer had said "This girl must have gone off with some young man. What are we to do with this photo " and she put away the photo.
That same evening, the father the of the girl heard that the corpse of a young woman was found in the shrub land near the Malkanda bridge. The father went to that spot and identified the body as that of his daughter. The father informed the police at Nawalapitiya and gave the name of one particular person whom he suspects could have been the perpetrator of this crime, but the Police have not shown any concern about this case.
However the case was taken up by Fr Nandana and his team , the then director of Setik, and leaflets were distributed in Nawalapitiya town. A public protest against Nawalapitiya police was held from the Hindu Kovil of Soyzakelle to St Mary's church Nawalapitiya town calling the police to investigate into the rape and murder of Umadevi. Further eventually, the investigations were done by police officer Mr Samarakoon with the documents and details provided by Mr Wijesinghe of Setik.
A post card campaign was also initiated along with the rape case of Jesudasan Rita as both incidents happened within 02 months.After so much of campaign the 07 suspects were taken into custody on the 19th February 2003 by the Gampola Division Unsolved Crime Detective Bureau in collaboration with Kandy Special Crime Unit as a result of an investigation undertaken at the instruction of DIG Kandy Nimal Mediwaka. Al the 07 suspects were from the Nawalapitiya town, businessmen between the age of 50-70.
Further a written statement was submitted by the Asian Legal Resource center ( ALRC) to the Secretary-General of the UN economic Social council on the 15th January 2002, resolution 1996/31 on "Integration of the Human Rights of women and Violence against women" citing the case of Umadevi.
The Rape case of Jesudasan Rita is also on trial at Nuwara-Eliya high court after 11 years and the next date is 04th September 2012.
Case No H.C. 309/07 S. Umadevi
This case was taken up for trial on 22.08.2012. Witnesses No. 05 and 06 Father and sister of the diseased respectively, gave evidence. Their evidence was to identify the gold chain of Umadevi , identify the body and to prove the fact that Umadevi was not returned after typing class on 12.09.2001.
Thereafter case was postponed to 23.08.2012 and the accused were remanded.
On 23.08.2012 the State called witness No. 16 - Kanniah Vasudevan. His evidence was that when he went to see Mohamed Salam the 02nd accused he head Salam was uttering to Haris the 01st accused “wms urej nj okafka keye” “ “fm
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