COLOMBO : A Sri Lankan Court on Thursday,July 29,to exhume the remains of 16-year-old Jude Kumar Ishalini on Friday,July 30 and to be moved to the Peradeniya Teaching Hospital under armed guards for the second post-mortem to be carried out.
The order was issued by Nuwara Eliya Magistrate Lushaka Kumari Dharmakeerthi on Thursday (29).
The Magistrate also ordered Sri Lanka Police to ensure that the body is exhumed at 08:30 AM on Friday (30) in accordance to the COVID-19 guidelines.
She made the order after considering the submissions made by State Counsel Hansa Abeyratne via a B report to the court.
The body of Jude Kumar Ishalini, the 16-year-old girl who was employed as a domestic aide at Ex-Minister Rishad Bathiudeen’s residence, will be exhumed on Friday, the 30th of July.
The 03-member Panel of Experts was appointed on Wednesday (28) to conduct the 02nd postmortem.
The Panel of Experts was appointed as nominated by the Director-General of Health Services and on the recommendation of the Attorney General.
The members of the three-member Expert Panel are:
01. Professor Jean Perera – Professor of Forensic Medicine at the Medical Faculty of the University of Colombo
02. Senior Lecturer Dr. Sameera Gunwardena – Head of the Department of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology at the Medical Faculty of the University of Colombo
03. Dr. Prabhath Senasinghe – Consultant Judicial Medical Officer at the Peradeniya Teaching Hospital
The body will be exhumed under the supervision of the respective Magistrate, with the assistance of all experts and stakeholders in the field.
Police have so far arrested three suspects in connection with the death of the 16-year old girl at the Ex-Minister’s residence.
They are the Ex-Minister’s Wife, Father-in-Law, and a broker, Ponniah Bandaram alias Shankar, who has trafficked the girl for domestic work.
In addition, the brother-in-law of Ex-Minister Rishad Bathiudeen was arrested by Sri Lanka Police for committing rape.
Sri Lanka Police recorded statements from another five people with regard to the investigations on the death of 16-year-old Jude Kumar Ishalini, a domestic aide who had died at the Colombo residence of Ex-Minister Rishad Bathiudeen.
Police Spokesperson Senior DIG Ajith Rohana speaking to News 1st on Thursday (29) said 11 women were employed as domestic aides at the residence of the Ex-Minister since 2010 and all of them were from Dayagama or surrounding areas.
He said that the detectives recorded statements from five of these women and the information unearthed will be investigated further.
Police Spokesperson Senior DIG Ajith Rohana speaking to News 1st on the 23rd of July said statements were recorded from two domestic aides who served at the Ex-Minister’s residence before the arrival of the 16-year-old girl.
These two domestic aides are women aged 22 and 32, both from Dayagama and investigations revealed that a trafficker identified as Ponnaiah Bandaram alias Shankar had brought them to Colombo.
The 22-year-old woman had expressed that she was raped at the official residence of the Ex-Minister in Colombo from 2015 to 2019.
The 44-year-old brother-in-law of Ex-Minister Bathiudeen was identified as the suspect and was arrested by the detectives.
On the 26th of July, court ordered all four suspects to be placed in remand custody until the 09th of August 2021.
On that day, Deputy Solicitor General Dileepa Peiris pointed out to the court that the prosecution suspects the death was not suicide, but murder.
The burial site of the 16-year-old girl is currently under police guard in Dayagama.(News First)
