Mother and lover arrested over death of infant

By Ranjith Rajapakse

During investigations of the body of a female infant recovered from a trishaw parked in front of a house at a tea estate in Agarapathana yesterday, the police arrested the driver of the trishaw and the mother of the infant.  

The mother was a 24 year old unmarried woman and the 28 year old trishaw driver, a father of two children. They are alleged to have been in love for a long period of time.   

Investigations revealed that the suspect woman had been employed in Mawanella area and that the trishaw driver had brought her by rickshaw from Mawanella to the Henfold estate on Monday (09). She had delivered the child a couple of days ago..  

Police said they noticed a wire wrapped around the neck of the infant leading to suspicion of foul play.   

The trishaw driver’s mother who got a bad smell in the trishaw had looked into it to find the decomposed body of the child in a polythene bag. 

Residents of the area who came to know the incident had informed Aragapathana police.  

Nuwara Eliya Actg. magistrate who held the preliminary magisterial inquiry ordered police to refer the body to JMO Nuwara Eliya General Hospital to perform the postmortem.  
Agarapathana police are conducting further investigations.