Storm Drain Tragedy: Human Rights Probe launched into schoolboy's death

COLOMBO (News 1st); Sri Lanka's Human Rights Commission had decided to investigate the tragic death of a schoolboy who was trapped inside a storm drain for over an hour during a torrential downpour in Kurunegala on Monday (5) afternoon.

Chairperson of the Human Rights Commission Retired Supreme Court Justice Rohini Marasinghe told News 1st that all relevant parties will be summoned for the investigations.

The post-mortem revealed that the young boy, identifed as Sajith Gunaratne, had drowned, resulting in his death.

The parents of the Sajith Gunaratne, would have never imagined that their son who was supposed to walk back home, would return one last time on the shoulders of his loved ones on Tuesday (6).

Sajith Gunaratne, a Grade 9 student from the Maliyadeva Model School in Kurunegala, passed away under tragic circumstances when returning home from school on Monday (5) afternoon.

Sajitha who was walking back on the Wehera Kanda Udawatte Road had moved aside to give way for a van that was traveling on the road, and thereafter had fallen into the storm drain.

Locals banded together to rescue Sajitha from the storm drain, however, their efforts proved futile.

Sajith who was pulled out after almost an hour and a half was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit of the Kurunegala Teaching Hospital, where he breathed his last.

Sajith Gunaratne, who was a resident from Wehera, Kurunegala was the youngest in the family with two sisters.

The Kurunegala Police on Tuesday (6) inspected the location where the tragedy took place.

Locals said that when it rains the storm drain is not large enough for the flow of flood waters.

According to the locals, school children from two schools use the Wehera Kanda Watte Road and warned that there are several such dangerous death traps along the road.

The Kurunegala Municipal Commission visited the site for an investigation on Tuesday (6).

The regional politicians were so eager to demolish the king’s assembly hall in the heart of the Kurunegala Town, or cut down the trees at the Town Park.

However, if they had shown such eagerness to renovate the storm drain, this tragedy would have never happened.