On January 22, around mid-afternoon, a couple was seen engaged in deep conversation at the serene Pannai Beach in Jaffna. This was by no means an unusual sight to Jaffna citizenry as often lovers would be seen strolling along the beach or seated on a bench enjoying the beautiful views. Even as the voices grew louder and angrier those around had believed it to be a mere lovers tiff. But it was the woman’s screaming that had signaled to onlookers that all was not right.As people rushed to the scene they were greeted by a horrific scene. The waters of the Pannai lagoon had turned bright red.
The woman, later identified as 29-year-old Hapuhettige Dona Roshani Kanchana, a final year medical student at the University of Jaffna had been attacked by the man she was with and pushed into the lagoon. On closer inspection, it was evident that her throat and a hand had been slit viciously with a sharp object. As her attacker prepared to flee the youth in the area had apprehended him, some in a video clip later released online were even seen beating him before handing him over to the Police. The investigators also recovered the knife he had used to carry out the dastardly attack. Her killer was later revealed to be her estranged husband, a soldier serving at the Jaffna 662 Brigade Headquarters identified as Lance Corporal Dileep Kumara of the Sri Lanka Army Medical Corps. Despite clinging on to life Roshani lost her battle on the way to the Jaffna Hospital.
Her family is however still unable to come to terms with the untimely death of their daughter. The eldest from an underprivileged family from Bandanagoda, Beruwala, Roshani had worked hard to enter the medical faculty. As a child, she would always dress up as a doctor for school concerts. Determined to achieve her childhood dream of becoming a doctor she had even sat for her advanced level examinations thrice, finally gaining admission to the medical faculty of the University of Jaffna. According to her mother, K.V. Premamalini, on that fateful day Roshani had called her mother around 1.30 pm. “She said she would have lunch and call me back later,” she said. But Roshani had never called back. “When I called her mobile phone it was the Police that answered. They said the owner of the phone had been killed,” she said.
According to her family, Roshani would have been the first youth to become a doctor from her village. “In about three months she would have passed out. He took away our most precious daughter,” her mother said.
Roshani’s parents claim her marriage to Dileep had always been tumultuous. Marrying the soldier in December 2016 her family said despite the numerous problems since, they had not imagined that Dileep would kill her. Her brother, 26-year-old Roshan Kalana who is also a medical student would have passed out from university along with his sister in a matter of months. Roshan describes his sister as one with a warm heart who would often call home nearly thirty times a day to check on her family including her three younger siblings. “She had a lot of issues because of her husband. He even wanted her to stop contacting us, her family,” he said. On two occasions, her killer had destroyed her mobile phones to prevent her from keeping in touch with her family on a regular basis.
Posting on a social media, a friend of Roshani’s from University, Gopi Pirasanth noted how Roshani had been determined and carried on to relieve her parents from their sufferings. “This is despite her being treated like an animal by his whole family for the last two years,” he said. The harassment she faced had been detailed in a diary kept by her. He also called out media for their reporting of the incident. According to her friend, the media has been spreading a rumour that she had an affair with an individual in the university, while her body lying in the waters of the Pannai lagoon is being shared widely on social media in an irresponsible manner. “Why are they punishing her like this? They must be more sympathetic and responsible,” he said.
Reporting to courts about the killing, the Jaffna Police informed on Thursday (23) that the suspect had slit the victim’s throught and her hand before pushing her into the water while eye witness accounts had confirmed the incident. The victim had come to Pannai Beach to meet the suspect when an argument had resulted in the suspect attacking her with a sharp object. While her husband has now been remanded till February 6, her grieving family laid her down to rest yesterday at the Kalavilakanda general cemetery.