Kalutara is situated around 35 kilometers from Colombo and is one of the centres of the Sinhala Buddhist heartland. What happened to a mother and her 17-year-old daughter in this place where the ‘Bodiya’, the Bodhi tree is revered, demonstrates the extent to which security has broken down in the entirety of the country.
Kalutara is not a remote area. It is a highly populated city with a sophisticated populace. The life style is both urban and suburban. The tragedy that happened to this family even in the midst of this city shows what might be happening in the more remote areas of Sri Lanka. In view of what has happened to this family in the very heartland of the Sinhala Buddhist community, it is not difficult to imagine the problems being faced by the people in the north and the east. Amugoda Kakanamge Doti, made a complaint to the Superintendent of Police (SP), Kalutara, Sarath Perera, concerning the abduction of her 17-year-old school going daughter. After the girl was abducted she was raped and held in an unknown location for 16 days.
Even to have the complaint recorded was a hard struggle for Doti who is a widow. Despite many visits to the Kalutara South Police Station no proper statement was recorded from her. After several days she sought the help of a deputy minister, Rohitha Abegunawardene. The minister himself was not present and it was the persons assisting the minister who intervened with the police to get this matter investigated. Even then it took several days for the police to intervene and rescue the girl who was being held in the vicinity of the Kalutara police jurisdiction. After the rescue a fabricated story was created with the collaboration of the police that the girl had left home on her own free will and a false report was presented to the court in order to place her on probation in order to protect the perpetrators. It was only after submissions were made that the court directed the mother of the victim to visit the Superintendent of Police, Kalutara, to make the complaint.
That was how the SP took steps to direct the child for a medical examination. However, even after the recording of the complaint and complaints by a Judicial Medical Officer (JMO) and a competent psychiatrist no action has been taken to arrest the suspect.
The details of the story are as follows:
On March 26, 2010, Doti, the mother of the young girl, the girl (her identity is being withheld), inquired as to the whereabouts of her daughter who left home a few hours earlier to fetch water but had not returned. She looked for the girl everywhere but could get no news of her whereabouts.
At 5 pm she went to the Kalutara South Police Station with the intention of making a complaint. She was asked to sit and wait for someone to take her complaint but after three hours nothing had been done. It was only after she made a fuss that an officer spoke to her and asked her about the circumstances of the missing child. When she was asked if the girl was in a relationship with anyone the mother replied that she was very close to her daughter and even accompanied her to school every day and that, to her knowledge, she did not have any kind of close relationship with anyone outside the family. When asked if there had been any suspicious incidents she stated that there was only one such incident that she could recall. She had seen a person by the name of Priyankara, an elderly person working at the High Court of Kalutara who visited her house. When asked as to the reason for his visit he gave the excuse that he was in the area and it was just an accident that he visited the house. He stayed for a short while and then left.
A few days later this man returned and this time gave the excuse that he was visiting someone who was sick and since the person had been admitted to the hospital he was waiting for a short while before going back to the hospital. Doti asked the man to sit and since it was lunch time, and the usual custom in these houses, she asked him to join her for lunch which he did. After some time he left.
Doti told the police that other than this nothing unusual had occurred recently. If she suspected anyone of taking the girl it was this man. When the Priyankara’s name was mentioned the policeman immediately recognised the name and told Doti that he worked at the High Court of Kalutara, and that he knew him personally. He even said that he had Priyankara’s telephone number.
When the policeman started to call Priyankara Doti told him that if he called him he would know that was a suspect. It was better to go directly to the house so that they could recover the girl immediately. At this point the officer told Doti that there was no fuel for the police jeep and that if she could give them Rs. 500/= they could purchase fuel and go to the house. She handed over the money and then she and three officers left. They went to a remote area at Sinhagama and the three officers left Doti in the jeep. After some time they returned and reported that Priyankara was not at home and they returned to the police station.
From the next day Doti visited the police station every day, morning and night, pleading with the police to look for her daughter. They refused to take any action and told her that if she knew where they could find Priyankara they would arrest him but that there was nothing else they would do. All her pleading fell on deaf ears. After visiting the police station on April 4 and still not seeing any action Doti decided to seek the intervention of a politician in the area.
It was at this point in time that she went to the house of Rohitha Abegunawardene, now a deputy minister who is the Member of Parliament for the area. As mentioned earlier the minister’s assistants met with Doti. She told them her story and they blamed her for not coming earlier. They then called a police officer at the Payagala Police Station and asked him to take immediate action to find the girl. The minister’s assistance knew Priyankara and his details and instructed the police to look for this man and rescue the girl. Doti was then asked to go to the Piyagala Police Station where she met with an officer. This officer, after hearing her story told her to return to the Kalutara South Police Station and that the girl would be produced there.
However, the girl was not, in fact, produced and it was after many interventions by a senior police officer who threatened members of Priyankara’s family that Priyankara himself and the girl were brought to the police station on April 11. The girl was pale and obviously in ill health. Doti was refused permission to speak with her daughter and when the girl tried to talk to her a police officer slapped her. It was only in the afternoon that she was able to talk to the girl. However, even then she was not able to get details due to the presence of the police.
Later a Probation Officer arrived and spoke to Doti. This officer told Doti that the girl had made a statement that she left of her own free will as she was being harassed by her mother. On this basis a report was made to that effect and presented to the Magistrate’s Court of Kalutara. Doti sought help from lawyers from the Kalutara Bar who all refused, giving the reason that they knew Priyankara and were not in a position to appear for her. It appears from the full names of these persons that Priyankara, whose full name is Andadige Don Sunimal Priyankara, belong to a particular caste in the area that has significant influence and even some of the lawyers belong to this caste.
She had to get a lawyer from Colombo to appear for her who stated the actual circumstances of the abduction and wanted to have the girl released. However, because of the Probation Officer’s report the girl was sent to a Probation house. It was a few days later that she was produced from the house and by that time there were signs of injury to her ear and her head. The injuries were caused by inmates of the house who wanted to take sexual advantage of her.
After making submissions in the court the girl was released on bail and it was only then that the mother was able to go to the Superintendent of Police, Kalutara, and make a complaint. This officer recorded her statement and gave her some forms to take to the hospital so that the girl could have a medical examination. She was admitted to the hospital where she remained for three days. After that she was sent to a Colombo hospital and it was there that the JMO examined her and made a report on the basis of her complaints. Following this the JMO referred the girl to a psychiatrist who found her to be suffering from extreme trauma. The girl is now under medication from the psychiatrist and has to make regular visits to the hospital.
After her daughter’s release Doti was able to talk to her in detail and slowly unraveled what had taken place. The girl told her that on the 26th when she went to fetch water three people arrived in a three-wheeler. One was the driver, the second appeared to have lost both legs and used artificial limbs and the third person was Priyankara. Priyankara threatened the girl with a knife and told her to get into the three-wheeler. When she refused she was forced into the vehicle and driven away at speed. She noticed that she had been taken to a hotel at Piyagala because she saw the sign. Initially she was locked inside a room and the three persons left. Later Priyankara returned alone and after threatening and beating the girl finally raped her on the same night.
The following morning she was taken by a three-wheeler to some place in Piyagala, then Colombo and then to a remote house at Sinhagama at Piyagala. It is a very remote area and said to be the house owned by Priyankara. Priyankara is a married man with a married daughter and his wife is employed overseas. It was an empty house in a remote jungle like area and it was here that the girl was held. She was repeatedly raped and watched constantly, even when she went to the toilet. People who knew Priyankara brought him food and at no time during the period of her captivity did he leave.
It was only after the interventions by Doti that the girl and Priyankara were brought to the police station. However, before this Priyankara threatened the girl and forced her to write a letter in which she said that she left home because she was being harassed by her mother. It was this letter that was produced in court and used to obtain her probation.
Despite of all of Doti’s attempts Priyankara was not arrested, no inquiries have been made and no court proceedings initiated. When Doti made inquiries from the police regarding this she was told of two reasons where a case had not been filed. The first was the girl’s letter which said that she had left on her own free will, the second was that Priyankara, who had worked in the court for a long time also made a statement that he had previously had a relationship with the girl’s mother. On the basis of these two things the police refused to take any action.
Doti had gone to so much trouble, travelled to many places and pleaded with so many people but she is unable to get any justice for her child. With the help of a human rights group she has written to all the senior police officers of the area, the National Police Commission, and the Human Rights Commission asking for action to be taken. However, no action has been taken despite all of her interventions and those by the human rights group who have written to all the relevant authorities.
