Evidence of Seya’s father: ‘She was not seen in her bed that evening’

At the inquest held on Monday on the death of Seya Sadevmi of Badalgama, her father Baladarage Upul Nishantha (37) said when he returned home that day about 12.10 pm, his wife had asked him “where is daughter Seya ?” and he had replied saying that she was not seen in her bed.

Then his wife had said she must have gone to sleep with the mother. Thereafter they had gone to sleep and in the morning when they searched for her, they had found her missing.

The inquest was held before the Minuwangoda chief Magistrate D.A. Ruwan Pathirana. The five-year-old Seya Sadevmi who had slept with her mother, brother and younger sister in a house in Akarangaha Badalgama Kotadeniyawa on September 11 had gone missing. Her body was found two days later lying in a paddy field in Otharawela in Akarangaha.

The evidence was led by the OIC of Kotadeniyawa Police, Inspector Sujith Udaya Kumara. Seya’s grand father Baladarage Dayarathne (59) giving evidence said on that day he had left home at 07.00 pm with his wife and neighbours in a van to visit a funeral house in Minuwangoda, and returned home well past 10.00 pm. When he returned home his son was not to be seen, and he had thought that the children were fast asleep, as it was usual for them to go to sleep by 07.00 or 07.30 pm. He further said: “when someone is away from home, the front door of the house remains unlocked. I cannot remember whether the door remained open when I returned from the funeral house. I had my dinner and went to sleep with my wife, and as my wife sleeps alone in the bed sometimes my granddaughter Seya joins her.”