Vithya’s rape: The complete story
“She was a sprightly young girl, bubbly and buoyant and she had an uncompromising love for all animals. She could never harm a fly even if she was forced to. To see her raped and slain in this manner is devastating. The gruesome image of her mutilated corpse will haunt us for as long as we live”, laments a close friend of Sivaloganathan Vithya.
“The gruesome image of her mutilated corpse will haunt us for as long as we live”, the words reverberated in my head over and over again. A shallow darkness swept over the hollowness of my heart as I collapsed onto a chair aghast at the mere thought of it. The sharpness of my mind mapped out every minute detail of the heartrending ordeal as Vithya’s tearful friend related the ghastly episode.
The incident
Sivaloganathan Vithya was an 18 year old young girl hailing from a very ordinary family. She was a student of Pungudithivu Maha Vidyalayam in Pungudithivu, which was just a small distance away from her home. Every day she would leave home at 7.00 in the morning and walk through a small secluded pathway to the Aaladi Junction, passing which she would reach school. On 13 May, it was no different. She left home in the morning, but she had neither reached school nor was she seen anywhere near the Aaladi Junction.
When she did not return home after school hours, her parents began to get nervous. By 3.00 in the evening, her brother Sivaloganathan Nishanthan was dispatched to look for her, and gradually the rest joined him in his search for her. By 6.00 in the evening, her family went to the Police to file a complaint, but the Police did not appear to be cooperative. “They said that she must have run away with somebody”, her brother Nishanthan claimed.
It rained very heavily that night as the family continued their fruitless search to no avail. During the wee hours of dawn the following day, Vithya’s pet dog returned to Nishanthan with her shoes. Nishanthan did not waste a moment longer, and as he got to the spot, he fainted at first glimpse of Vithya.
Vithya’s corpse was found stark naked with her hands and legs bound using her school uniform on the jungle like pathway before the Aaladi Junction. It was found close to an abandoned house on the isolated road. The Police arrived several hours later at around 8.30 in the morning to carry out their routine inspections. Until such time the corpse remained untouched in the gruesome manner in which it was laid for people to see.
Her school uniform had been used to tie her hands, and her ribbons to tie her legs. Her body was heavily mutilated and disgusting to relate. Her breasts had been torn off her body reportedly using a blunt knife. She had also been brutally forced to swallow her undergarments, which were found inside of her body close to her chest as she suffocated to death.
Her father, who had been previously ill, collapsed in bewilderment and lay in the same state no more able to function normally. The only words he would utter were, ‘They should be killed, they should be killed’.
The investigations
The Police immediately recorded statements from the victim’s mother and brother, Saraswathi and Nishanthan and launched investigations to find the suspects amid a tumultuous uproar from the people of Pungudithivu. The people had obviously become agitated by the lack of action initiated by the Police.
The statement recorded from Saraswathi indicated that the rape was likely premeditated by a vengeful group. When Police located a part of the victim’s breast cast nearby, they used Police dogs to trace three suspects of the alleged group. Two of them had been brothers who were renowned for their atrocities in Jaffna.
Five other suspects were subsequently arrested based on investigations. One of the suspects named Chandra Haasan had resided in VIthya’s home the night prior to her gruesome murder. He had only been released from prison few months ago after having been convicted for domestic violence on his wife. His wife, with whom he still lived with, was a relative of Vithya and had therefore stayed at Vithya’s house that night. However, Chandra Haasan had left the house around 1.00 at dawn and was only seen after the incident thereafter.
All five of the suspects had been present at Vithya’s funeral, after which they were arrested. The suspects had allegedly planned to escape to India through Colombo, but were prevented from doing so by the valiant people of Jaffna. Vithya had put up much resistance during her struggle to escape the clutches of these shameless villains, thereby leaving a fresh scar on each person. The Police found this sufficient evidence to warrant an arrest.
Further evidence of the gruesome act had emerged when one of the phones was found to contain a video of the brutal rape of Sivaloganathan Vithya.
The uprising
The prime suspect in the conspiracy was a Swiss national by the name of Mahalingam Sivakumaran. The agitated people of Jaffna located and captured the suspect who was attempting to flee. After beating the suspect, the people of Jaffna had reportedly trusted a prominent academician from Colombo University with the suspect.
The following day, the same academician had held a public meeting where he had assured the people that he would help get all of the conspirators arrested. During the meeting, somebody from the crowd had suddenly shouted that Sivakumaran was spotted at a Hotel in Colombo. It was also found that no complaints were lodged at the Police Station against the suspect. Following further agitations, it was claimed that the academician had played an instrumental role in orchestrating the escape of the suspect as they were both related.
The people refused to let the prominent academician go without an assurance that the suspect will be arrested. The alleged inaction of the Police, and the presumed actions of the academician were creating a massive doubt in the minds of the people over the transparency of the system. The subsequent protests were more violent and imposed on the Police an obligation to act. The protestors had marched to the Government Agents office and handed over a petition demanding action. Letters addressed to the President and Prime Minister too had been dispatched.
The agitations grew even after Mahalingam Sivakumaran was arrested in Colombo. The people who had lost faith in the legal system within a short span of time, wanted the suspects released so that the law of the jungle may prevail for the suspects. Certain signs called for the suspects to be sentenced with the death penalty.
The Police resisted these agitations and began countering the constant violence with tear gas and water cannons. Unfortunately, Vithya’s mother too happened to participate in one of the protests and had passed out as a result of the Police resistance.
As three of the suspects were produced before the Kayts magistrate on Thursday (21), further protests were held, but the agitations had significantly died down. Over 2000 persons peacefully participate in the protest demanding for justice to be served to the perpetrators of the gruesome crime.
As many as 130 persons were arrested by the Police until then for blatantly committing to unlawful assembly and other crimes. The arrested protestors were produced before a magistrate and further remanded. They will once more be produced before courts in three separate batches on different dates during the first week of June.
The nine suspects who are alleged to have perpetrated the rape and murder of Sivaloganathan Vithya, will also be produced before courts once more on the 1 June.
Commenting on the agitations, the Police Media Unit claimed that nobody had the right to take the law unto their hands. “The due process is at play, and everybody is innocent until proven guilty. Nobody has the right to attack the Police or the courts. We have acted fairly and arrested all of the perpetrators within 72 hours. Is that not evidence enough that we have acted fairly? We deserve respect for what we have done”, Inspector Mahakumara of the Police Media Unit said.
The plight of the family
Vithya’s brother, Nishanthan stated that the situation at home was still bleak. “Amma is still unable to fathom the whole crisis. She has been tearing the whole time. My father is a little sick, and I am handling everything in this house in his place”, he said.
Vithya’s mother was devastated, and expressed it in no lesser sentiment. It was apparent she was trying to be strong, but her voice kept cracking as she attempted to fight off the tears.
“What can we do now? These people have committed this heinous crime, and I can only pray that justice is served. Vithya will not return to us, and what they did to her can never be forgotten. I have faith. I believe these criminals will serve the sentence they deserve”, she said.