Woman’s charred body found in driver seat of burnt bus

Gampaha Additional Magistrate Manjula Karunaratne, who conducted the inquest at the scene, ordered the Gampaha Police to take the body to the Gampaha General Hospital

A woman was charred to death when a bus parked in front of her house caught fire on Saturday.

The charred body was recovered from the driving seat of the bus by the Gampaha Police.

The victim has been identified as 59-year-old Malkanthi Karunaseeli of Aswampola, Udugampola.

Residents said that they noticed the bus burning on Saturday morning and upon their information, the fire brigade vehicle of the Gampaha Municipal Council that rushed to the scene had doused the fire.

Later the charred body of the woman was found on the driver seat of the bus.

The husband of the woman had been away from the house at the time of the incident, they said. Gampaha Additional Magistrate Manjula Karunaratne, who conducted the inquest at the scene, ordered the Gampaha Police to take the body to the Gampaha General Hospital. He also ordered the Judicial Medical Officer to conduct the postmortem examination and report to the court on the cause of the death on September 26.

The Gampaha Police headed by OIC of the Gampaha Headquarters Police Lakshman Bandara are conducting investigations on the instructions of Senior DIG Muditha Pussella and ASP Senadhipathi Silva.