Court orders to exhume body of 16 year old girl and conduct fresh postmortem

COLOMBO (News 1st); A Sri Lankan court has ordered to exhume the body of Jude Kumar Ishalini, the 16-year-old female domestic aide who died from burn injuries and to conduct a fresh post-mortem examination.

The order was made by Colombo Additional Magistrate Rajindra Jayasuriya.

The 16-year-old female domestic aide was employed at the residence of Ex-Minister Rishad Bathiudeen and her body was buried in Dayagama.

The Additional Magistrate ordered the Director-General of Health Services to appoint a panel comprising of the senior-most Judicial Medical Officers in the country to conduct the post-mortem examination on the exhumed body.

Ex-Minister Rishad Bathiudeen's wife, father-in-law, and a broker were arrested over the death of Jude Kumar Ishalini while his brother-in-law was also arrested over a separate rape incident at the same residence.

The Additional Magistrate ordered for all four suspects to be placed in remand custody until the 09th of August 2021.

The Additional Magistrate also rejected the application for bail made by the defense noting that the submissions made by the prosecution made it clear that the first suspect, the broker, had generated a large sum of money by trafficking the girl for domestic employment at Ex-Minister Rishad Bathiudeen's residence and the Ex-Minister's Father-in-Law had deliberately concealed information with regard to the girl suffering burn injuries.

The Additional Magistrate further pointed out that the documentation produced in court and the submissions made by the Deputy Solicitor General make it more clear that over an hour and a half was taken to hospitalize the 16-year-old girl, given that it would have taken only 15 to 20 minutes to admit her in hospital following the incident.

Additional Magistrate Rajindra Jayasuriya went on to note that the Ex-Minister's Father-in-Law, as well as the victims' father and brother, had attempted to force the conclusion of the investigations, and therefore granting them bail at a time when the complex investigations into the death and related incidents are yet to be completed, could result in the suspects exerting influence on the investigations and forcing the disappearance of the evidence, given that they are individuals with some sort of power in society.

Deputy Solicitor General Dileepa Peiris informed the court that Ex-Minister Rishad Bathiudeen, the head of the household, would also be named as a suspect in the case based on the available evidence.

He added that the death of the 16-year-old girl was not an isolated incident but one committed by all members of Ex-Minister Rishad Bathiudeen's family.

Deputy Solicitor General Dileepa Peiris pointed out that the victims' parents had visited the Ex-Minister's residence three times within 08 months to see her, but they were not denied such an opportunity.

He further noted that based on the signs on the victims' body it was evident that she was assaulted before her death and attention was not given to this matter in the post-mortem examination.

The Additional Magistrate granted permission to send the CCTV camera devices from the Ex-Minister's residence to the Moratuwa University to recover the deleted data after the DSG pointed out that the residents had claimed that 06 out of the 08 CCTV camera's were inactive.

Deputy Solicitor General Dileepa Peiris pointed out that the prosecution suspects the death was not suicide, but murder.

He said the victim was set on fire three days before her mother was to visit Ex-Minister Rishad Bathiudeen's residence to take her back home after she was informed that her daughter was being beaten at the premises.