Blind love: Sri Lankan kills 3 family members

An illicit love affair has resulted in a man allegedly strangling his wife and elder son to death before setting his house on fire, killing an infant too, it has been revealed.

The chilling triple murder which occurred near the Deaf and Blind School junction in Ratmalana, a suburb of Colombo, has sent shockwaves around the country as gruesome details emerged for the reason behind the killings.

It was his love affair with a 20 year-old international school teacher of Marawila in Negombo, Gossip Lanka News website has revealed.

Shetha Sandamalee Silva, 31, an elementary school teacher at Princess of Wales National School, Moratuwa and her two children Prashan, 3, and one-month old Krishan, were found burnt to death on December 17 morning.

The Judicial Medical Officer (JMO) Dr Dhammika Ariyaratne of the Colombo South Teaching Hospital determined after a lengthy post-mortem that the woman and one child had been strangled.

The suspect, Vimukthi Chathuranga de Silva, had confessed to the crimes after interrogation by police, according to reports.

In his initial confession, he alleged that his wife had been having an illicit love affair and it was the reason for the triple murder and he is not the biological father of the second son.

It has now emerged that the couple had an argument on that fateful night after the husband revealed to his wife that he has a girlfriend, according to Gossip Lanka News website.

Through sheer anger, the suspect had strangled her to death. He had further revealed to the Police that the elder son had seen this incident had cried out and tried to run away from the room. But the suspect had not allowed him to escape and strangled him also to death.

Then the suspect had kept his infant near the dead body of his wife as if she was breastfeeding him and then kept them on the mattress in a sleeping position covered with the mosquito net. Then he had poured perfume on the net and had lit a candle with a matchstick before setting it on fire. He says he fled to his room upstairs closing the door behind him. He later told police he slept in the room normally occupied by his mother.

A senior executive officer attached to garment factory, the suspect owing to a personal conflict had quit his job about three weeks ago before the incident.

Apparently when the wife of the suspect was pregnant with his second son, he met a young girl through the social networking site Facebook, the report said.

She was told by her ‘boyfriend’ that he is a 27 year-old bachelor and not 37 which is his real age.

He had disclosed to the Police that he had commenced the illicit love affair about three months back and that only three weeks ago he had met his lover in Colombo.

Police suspect his craze to marry the young girl lead to this triple murder.

The suspect has been produced before courts. The magistrate had requested a report on his mental status to be obtained by a psychiatrist. The Court ordered the suspect to be remanded until the next hearing. The police are conducting further investigations.

Follow Emirates 24|7 on Google News.