Urumutta is a fairly big village in the Akuressa police area located about nine miles away from the town on the Akuressa-Morawaka road. Much of this sparsely populated village is covered by a tea and rubber plantation, Urumutta Estate, who’s Superintendent Nihal de Silva, was a past pupil of Ananda College and a native of Ambalangoda. Being from my home town and the same school, I was friendlier with him than the other estate superintendents of the area when I served as Officer-in-Charge of the Akuressa Police.

About 100 yards from the main Deniyaya Road on the road leading to Urumutta is a small house/boutique owned by a man named Pedirik Appu who was convicted of murder and was serving a jail sentence at Welikada. His wife, Somawathie, a buxom woman of about 35 years ran the boutique with her son, Premasiri, who was then 14 years-old. He was just six years old when his father was sentenced to jail.

Somawathie sold arrack at her boutique to known customers. It was also rumoured that she was intimate with a man called Wilson Liyanage of Marambe who came regularly to her boutique for his liquor.

Peter Liyanage, the Principal of a leading English school in Matara, and his wife, Elsie, Headmistress of the Morawaka Government School also lived in this area in a house on Urumutta Road about quarter of a mile away from the main Deniyaya Road. Their 16-year-old daughter, Mallika, was a very bright student who was boarded at the Matara Convent.

Wilson and Peter Liyanage were paternal cousins who had both studied at a prestigious school in Matara. While Peter had continued his studies, Wilson was a school dropout. Both men inherited property from their parents. Wilson was ostracized by his family for marrying a village girl without his parents’ consent. He and his wife too had a daughter who was good in her studies but was not encouraged by her parents to continue her studies.

This girl, like her cousin Mallika, was beautiful. The parents of both children did not talk to each other and the two girls therefore also avoided contact.

Mallika passed her SSC Examination with flying colours and entered a leading Buddhist girls school at Bambalapitiya to sit for her university entrance examination. She entered the Medical College at the age of 19-years and was the first girl to do so from the Akuressa electorate. Her parents were delighted about their daughter’s success and when Mallika came home for the holidays, the Liyanages invited all their friends and relations for a big dinner at their home.

Wilson Liyanage and his wife and daughter, Rani, were not invited for this celebration and this rankled in the hearts of Wilson and his wife. About six months after the party at Peter Liyanage’s house, Wilson Liyanage who was returning home from the Galle courts found Mallika, a fellow-passenger in the bus. She too was coming home from Colombo.

Liyanage smiled at her but she ignored him and when Wilson told this to his wife after returning home, she reprimanded him for making a friendly gesture towards Mallika.

Wilson’s daughter, Rani, who had blossomed into a beautiful young woman, was having a love affair with Shelton, the newly employed driver of Peter Liyanage. Neither of the Liyanage families knew of this affair until the couple had gone to the Matara Kachcheri, got married on a special license and disappeared.

The angry Wilson thought that Peter Liyanage’s wife had encouraged this affair and swore revenge. Mr. and Mrs. Peter Liyanage did not know of the rage that was building up in the hearts of Mr. and Mrs. Wilson Liyanage.

Meanwhile, Peter’s daughter, Mallika had fallen in love with a fellow student who was in his fourth year at the Medical College. This young man was a Tamil and Mallika’s parents who thoroughly disapproved threatened to take her out of Medical College if she did not give up the affair.

Mallika was expected home one Friday evening. She usually took a bus to Galle from Colombo and then took the Deniyaya bound bus at 4.30 pm reaching home around 6 p.m. Mallika’s mother came on to the main road to meet her daughter but as she did not come in the Deniyaya bus, she went back home thinking she would come the next day.

The bus that Mallika had ridden from Colombo was late arriving at the Galle bus stand due to a spot of engine trouble and she could not take her regular bus to Deniyaya. She therefore boarded the last Deniyaya bound bus for the day at Galle at 6.15 p.m.

This bus was driven by a man called Attygalle of Henagama, Akuressa, who knew Mallika’s father well. He therefore dropped the girl off at the turnoff to Urumutta Road instead of the regular halt at about 7.30 p.m and drove off to Deniyaya.

Although it was dark by then, Mallika was not afraid as it was only about 400 yards to her home and everybody in the area knew her.

Wilson Liyanage was having a drink at Somawathie’s boutique with two of his friends, James and Baron, both bad characters of the area and well known thugs. He saw Mallika passing the boutique and walking alone towards her home.

Wilson called his two friends and followed the girl. She sensed danger and quickened her steps but the three men caught up with her. She raised cries but nobody herd hear. Wilson held her by the hand and dealt her an open handed slap calling her "a proud bitch."

She fainted as a result of fear and the blow. James and Wilson dragged her to the nearby tea plantation and both had sex with her. Wilson then pulled out a knife from his waist and stabbed the girl several times.

The three men returned to Somawathie’s boutique, had a few more drinks and asked the woman for a crowbar and a mammoty. She pointed to the place where the tools were stored and the men went away carrying the implements with them. Somawathie found the mammoty and crowbar cleaned and left at the place from where they took them away.

The three men had dragged the body of the dead girl towards a paddy field, dug a grave and buried the corpse covering the gravesite with some shrubs. They returned the crowbar and mammoty to Somawathie’s compound and went away to their respective houses.

Peter Liyanage came to the Akuressa Post Office next morning and booked a call to the women’s hostel of the Medical College from where he learnt that Mallika had left for Urumutta the previous afternoon. Knowing about the daughter’s love affair, he thought she was gallivanting with him and decided to take her out of the Medical College.

The thoroughly unhappy Peter Liyanage was going home from the post office when he met Attygala, the bus driver, who had been one of his students, and the two of them fell into conversation. Attygala told Liyanage that he had dropped Mallika at the turnoff to Urumutta at about 7.30 p.m. the previous evening and had continued his trip to Deniyaya.

Thoroughly distraught, Peter Liyanage went to the house of the Grama Sevaka of Morawaka and complained of the disappearance of his daughter. The Grama Sevaka went to the place closest to where Mallika had been dropped from the bus, which was Somawathie’s house/boutique and questioned her. She denied any knowledge of Mallika or having seen her pass the previous evening.

The Grama Sevaka brought the complainant to the Akuressa Police Station and I had Peter Liyanage’s statement recorded. I sent PC 1464 Romiel to Attygala’s house, got him down to the police station and recorded his statement. He said that he had passed the regular bus halt and dropped Mallika at the turnoff to Urumutta and then driven to Deniyaya.

I went to Urumutta Estate and met my friend Nihal de Silva. A workforce of about 400 men and women, all from the locality, worked on the plantation and he was able to get a lot of information from them. He asked me whether I had not questioned Somawathie who ran the boutique at the junction.

Meanwhile a man reported a recently dug pit covered haphazardly with shrubs. I told the Grama Sevaka to get a few labourers and dig up this place and they discovered Mallika’s body. This was communicated to me forthwith.

I went to Matara, meet the magistrate and informed him of about finding the dead body and requested him to order a postmortem examination to be done by the JMO Galle. I was aware that the result of such cases depended on medical evidence. I also requested that a JPUM be nominated to hold the inquest. The magistrate ordered the postmortem and directed Mr. Willow Abeysuriya to hold the inquest at Urumutta.

Dr. V. Saravanapavanathan, JMO, Galle, drove to Urumutta and held the postmortem examination on the body of Mallika. He said the girl was not a virgin at the time of her death and had been raped at least twice before she died. Four stab injuries on the front of her chest, all necessarily fatal, was the cause of death. He estimated that Mallika would have died 24 to 36 hours before her body was found.

Mr. Abeysuriya returned a verdict of homicide and I had a murder case on my hands.

At about 5 a.m. the next morning I sent PC Romiel to Urumutta with instructions to bring Somawathie’s son, Premasiri, without her knowledge to the police station. PC Romiel brought the boy to the station on a pedal cycle. I did not speak to the boy but told him to sit on a bench and to wait and he started sobbing.

Within two hours Somawathie turned up at the police station weeping and wailing saying her son was missing from home. I told her that her boy was only said to be missing but Mallika had been killed and buried.

Somawathie’s crying became louder. PC Romiel told me that she wanted to make a statement which I recorded. She said that on the relevant day, Wilson Liyanage, Baron and James were drinking arrack in her boutique when Mallika got off the Galle-Deniyaya bus and hurried towards her home.

She was alone and Wilson who saw the girl called Baron and James and followed her. They came back to the boutique about 45 minutes later, had a few more shots of arrack and asked her for a crowbar and a mammoty. She showed them where the tools were stored and all three of them left around 9.30 p.m.

In the morning she noticed that the crowbar and the mammoty had been returned and both tools appeared to have been washed. I released Somawathie and sent Premasiri back home with his mother.

At about 2 a.m. the next morning PC 2496 Piyadasa, PC 5326 Jayasena, PC Umagiliya, PC Romiel and I left our station in the police jeep and parked it at Marambe. We simultaneously visited the houses of Wilson Liyanage, James and Baron with two policemen going to each house.

Wilson and James were not in their homes. PS 2001 Denipitiya produced Baron before me. He was brought to the Akuressa Police Station and having explained the charges against him his statement was recorded.

He said that all three of them were drinking arrack in Somawathie’s boutique at about 7.30 p.m. when they saw a girl going along Urumutta Road. Wilson Liyanage wanted the other two to accompany him and the girl was followed. Wilson caught her, slapped her hard, raped her and later stabbed her to death. All three of them buried the body close to a stretch of paddy land. He said that James too had raped the girl and he only assisted in the burial of the body.

Baron was produced before the Matara Magistrate and remanded to police custody pending the completion of the investigation. We visited the houses of Wilson and James both by day and night and both of them were not in their homes.

About a week later Proctor Mahes Jayawickrema produced both accused at the Akuressa Police Station. Mahes was a clever lawyer practicing at the Matara bar and had a finger on the pulse of all his cases.

He told me that he had told both accused to tell the truth to the police.

I first recorded the statement of Wilson Liyanage who admitted having raped the girl along with James and stabbed her to death. He also said that Baron did not do anything other than digging the grave to dispose the dead body.

He ended his statement saying that Mallika was a proud girl who had lost her bearings completely and her mother had helped her driver to elope with his (Wilson’s) only daughter, Rani.

I recorded the statement of suspect James who corroborated Wilson Liyanage’s statement and also admitted raping Mallika.

Both suspects were produced at the MC Matara and were remanded. I followed up by filing plaint under Section 296 of the Penal Code against all three accused for committing the murder of Mallika Liyanage. I also charged Wilson and James under Section 364 of raping the girl.

After lengthy non summary proceedings in the MC Matara, the magistrate committed this case to be heard in the Galle Assizes. Proctor Mahes Jayawickrema told me that the Attorney-General will make Baron a crown witness and the other two accused will have no chance at all of not being convicted. That was the experience that Mahes Jayawickrema had.

I sent the information book extracts to the Honourable Attorney-General and true to Jayawickrema’s words, the Attorney General indicted Wilson and James for murder and rape and made Baron a crown witness.

The case came for trial at the Southern Assize and after a five-day trial the jury unanimously returned a verdict of guilty for rape and murder against both accused. Both appealed against their convictions but their appeals were dismissed by the Court of Criminal Appeal.