Sri Lanka lifts travel ban on grieving British groom

A Briton whose bride died on their honeymoon two days after arriving in Sri Lanka was allowed to return home after a court lifted a travel ban yesterday.

Khilan Chandaria, 33, said he would probably return home today after thanking several Sri Lankans who helped him during the tragedy.

“When I heard that I can go back, the realisation finally hit me that I am going back to a life without my wife,” Chandaria told AFP by telephone from the southern resort town of Galle.
He said the remains of his wife Usheila Patel, 31, were repatriated yesterday as the courts decided to put off a full inquest into the death 
until August.

A court official told AFP that Galle magistrate Pavithra Pathirana revoked the travel ban as Chandaria was not regarded as a suspect in the death 
of his wife.

Chandaria was in court with three lawyers. He said he was touched by the kindness shown by Sri Lankans and wanted to thank all of them before leaving the island.
“If I was a foreigner in the UK and this happened, no one would have helped me as much as the help I got here,” he said adding that friends and relatives back home too were 
very supportive.

He said he wanted to keep his wife’s memory alive by offering his time for charity work.

The inquest into Patel’s death will resume in August, officials said, but Chandaria is not required to attend.

“The forensic reports were not available today. Therefore the inquest proceedings were postponed until August 7,” the court official told AFP from Galle, south of Colombo.
The couple checked into the Amari Galle hotel on April 23, four days after their wedding, and were taken ill two 
days later.

Amari spokesman Russell Cool told AFP last week that the couple initially declined medical treatment at a local hospital, but asked for help a few hours later. Patel died at the hospital.
“The couple consumed a light meal prepared by the hotel, as did other guests at the same time and who remain fine,” Cool 
told AFP.
(Colombo) AFP