Murder of sixteen-year-old sends shockwaves among villagers
The senseless killing of Hasitha Eranjan (16), a student of Colombageara Maha Vidyalaya in Udawalawa, had shocked the village of Miriswelpatha, Colombageara that was located in the Udawalawa Police Precinct.
Hasitha, who was due to sit for the GCE (O/L ) Examination this year, left home on Sunday (14) for a tuition class conducted in the village. However, his badly disfigured body had been discovered the next day (15) in a teak forest nearby. There were cuts on his neck and body. Four suspects between the ages of 17 and 21 had been taken in for questioning together with a three-wheeler suspected to have been used by them to commit the murder, according to the Udawalawa Police.
Principal of Colombageara Maha Vidyalaya where Hasitha went to school, Ven. Ananda Thera, said that Hasitha had been a school prefect and a band leader and was a clever student with sober qualities who had won the hearts of all.
He was the second born in the family and the only boy. His younger sister Janani was a student at the same school and was studying for the Grade Five Scholarship Exam. His father Tishan Indika was a bus conductor at the Embilipitya SLTB Depot.
No one there had any idea about the reason for the killing and said Hasitha was loved by every one in the village and no one would want to harm him.
The Embilipitiya Police however was conducting investigations into a lead that they had received about Hasitha having a romantic relationship with a girl who was also being courted by a three-wheel driver in town. There was a suspicion that the young three-wheel driver, who was unsuccessful in winning the heart of the girl, had killed Hasitha out of revenge.
Embilipitiya Additional Magistrate Kanchana N De Silva, who visited the scene, requested the public to help trace the suspect in this cruel murder.