Homagama High Court Judge Nimal Ranaweera yesterday ordered the Prisons Superintendent to keep the woman who was arrested on Sunday, after being in hiding for 34 years, following her being sentenced to death for aiding and abetting in the murder of Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) engineer W. Amarasiri, in jail as a suspect who has filed an appeal.
The convicted woman is A.W. Kamani Champika, a 66-year-old mother of one, who earlier had been working at the CEB as a typist. The woman who is the second accused in this case was arrested by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) and was ordered to be kept in custody until yesterday (12), after being presented to the Homagama Magistrate’s Court on Sunday.
Accordingly, the High Court Judge issued this order when the woman was presented to the Homagama High Court by prison officials yesterday.
In this case, the second accused and her husband, who is the first accused, had been tried in absentia and were sentenced to death in 2019.
Since the accused woman had filed an appeal against the High Court’s judgement, the High Court Judge ordered the prison authorities to keep her in prison as a person who has filed an appeal against the verdict.
The engineer had been murdered at a house in Welipillewa, Panagoda, Embulgama road in the Athurugiriya Police area on January 13, 1989. His dismembered body had been found buried inside a barrel.
The convicted woman Kamani Champika was 32 years old when she had allegedly committed the crime. She had allegedly been having an affair with the CEB engineer when she worked as a typist at the CEB head office where Amarasiri had also worked.
She had been residing in a house at Sri Sumana Mawatha in Welipillewa along with her husband who was working as a timekeeper at the SLTB.
The engineer had been killed by the first accused (Kamani Champika’s husband) and the second accused (Kamani Champika) had aided and abetted the crime.
The first accused too had been sentenced to death for the crime. He is yet to be arrested.
Nimanthi Ranasinghe and B.K. Kathriarachchi
