SLA sergeant commits suicide in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Saturday, 07 February 2004, 16:25 GMT]
Mr.N.P. Piyatilake, 42-year-old sergeant of the Sri Lanka Army attached to the Achchelu camp in Jaffna district, committed suicide by shooting himself on Friday afternoon in his room, police said.

Police recorded statements of fellow soldiers who were in the camp at that time of incident. According to investigation conducted so far, on hearing of gunshot sounds some soldiers in the area had rushed to the room of the deceased where they saw the victim on the floor with a T-56 rifle under one of his feet, police said.

Mr.Piyatilake, a native of Ruwanvela, died on admission at the Palaly military hospital.

The Mallakam Magistrate, Ms. Sarojini Ilangovan, Saturday held the magisterial inquest into the death of the deceased soldier at the Palaly military hospital. She allowed the police to send the body of the deceased to his native place and directed the Colombo Judicial Medical Officer to submit a postmortem report, the police sources said.