A man sentenced to death over the rape and murder of Jaffna schoolgirl Sivaloganathan Vidya has died by suicide in custody at the Jaffna Prison, the Department of Prisons confirmed on Monday.
The deceased was identified as 46-year-old Poobalasingam Jeyakumar, named as the second accused in the case. According to prison authorities, he was found hanged inside the cell where he was being held.
Jeyakumar was one of four men whose death sentences were confirmed by the Supreme Court on May 6, in a five-judge ruling that cemented the verdict first delivered by a Jaffna High Court Trial-at-Bar in 2017. The others whose sentences were upheld are Mahalingam Sashikumar — known as ‘Swiss Kumar’ — Thilainathan Chandrahason and Sivadev Thushithan. In the same ruling, the court acquitted and released two other accused, Mahalingam Saseetharan and Jayatharan Kokilan, after overturning their convictions.
Vidya, an 18-year-old schoolgirl, was abducted, sexually assaulted and murdered in the Punkuduthivu area of the Jaffna District on 13 May 2015. The crime triggered nationwide outrage and prompted one of the largest criminal investigations Sri Lanka’s justice system has handled, with the legal process running for almost a decade before the Supreme Court’s recent confirmation.
Jeyakumar’s death comes less than three weeks after that final ruling, while Sri Lanka maintains a long-standing moratorium on carrying out executions despite courts continuing to impose capital sentences.
Source: NewsFirst.
