Adulterous liaison ends in suicide

[TamilNet, Friday, 17 April 1998, 23:59 GMT]
A girl in Pt.Pedro, allegedly three months pregnant from a relationship with a married SLA soldier, committed suicide yesterday, when she was summoned for an inquiry, by setting herself on fire after dousing her body with kerosene, said medical sources in Vadamaradchi in Jaffna this morning.

The 24 year old girl was rushed to the Manthikai hospital with severe burns and died while being transferred to the Jaffna hospital.

The girl, B. Wijayakumari, had been summoned by an SLA officer in Pt. Pedro for an inquiry following a complaint made by one of her relatives through the PLOTE that she was having a sexual relationship with a soldier attached to the SLA camp in the area.

It had then transpired, according to PLOTE sources, that the Sinhala soldier was married and had children in his village in the southern part of the island.

The girl had set fire to herself yesterday when she was summoned by the army officer for an inquiry said PLOTE sources.

However, they said that some SLA soldiers had prevented people from rushing to the girl's assistance when she had set fire to herself.

Meanwhile, Jaffna hospital sources revealed today that the girl who had complained to the Kopay Police that a Muslim Police constable had raped her appears to have had an intimate relationship with him which led her to fear an unwanted pregnancy.

The girl, according to informed sources had complained to the Kopay Police where her paramour is employed, upon hearing that he had got married to another girl in the area recently.

It has now transpired that the Policeman is already married and has children in his village in the southern part of the island.

The Sri Lankan Security Forces HQ, which was hard pressed to explain the rape of the deaf and dumb girl in Meesaalai on March 16, was quick to seize the opportunity and put out a statement on the Kopay Cassanova's endeavours .

The Palaly HQ Press release put out this afternoon said -

"A woman named Kulasinghsam Ajanthana of no.386 Kandy Road in Ariyalai had complained to the Kopay Police Station that she is pregnant due to a sexual relationship with Reserve Police Constable (RPC) no. 25796 Rabih, who is attached to the same Police station and with whom she had a love affair with the intention of getting married. When conducting inquiries, it is found that RPC Rabih was married to another woman named Krishnarajah Krishnaveni from Kandasamy Kovil, Kopay North on April 8. Police are conducting further investigation to see whether he had violated the departmental disciplinary code and to deal him with the law to do the justice (sic) for the woman. Further details will follow."

This is the latest in a number of incidents of Jaffna girls and women having illicit affairs or adulterous liaisons with members of the Sri Lankan security forces in the Jaffna peninsula say informed sources in the peninsula.

The women who have been implicated in such sexual relationships range in their origin from Jaffna's small traditional upper middle class to the lower middle strata of the peninsula's social structure said a Jaffna university intellectual who takes an interest in the social changes taking place in the north as consequence of the conflict.

He attributes the phenomenon generally to the inevitable social upheavals common to societies subject to prolonged war and, in particular, to the puritanical culture which still plays a critical role in moulding the Jaffna psyche.

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