The death of a schoolboy in Kurunegala on Monday afternoon came after he became trapped inside a storm drain. His being trapped for more than an hour during a torrential downpour prompted the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka to launch an investigation.
Human Rights Commission Chair and former Supreme Court Justice Rohini Marasinghe assured News 1st that all necessary witnesses would be called in for investigations.
Sajith Gunaratne, the young boy who died, drowned, as evidenced by the autopsy results.
On Tuesday, Sajith Gunaratne’s parents received the shocking news that their son, who had planned to walk home, would instead return home for the last time carried aloft by his friends and family (6).
In a tragic turn of events on Monday (May 5) afternoon, Sajith Gunaratne. A ninth-grader at the Maliyadeva Model School in Kurunegala, was killed on his way home.
Sajitha, who was returning along the Wehera Kanda Udawatte Road, had to swerve out of the way of a van and consequently had a misstep that caused him to fall into a storm drain.
The community came together to try and pull Sajitha out of the drain, but they were unsuccessful.
Nearly an hour and a half later, Sajith was rescued, but he later died in the Intensive Care Unit at the Kurunegala Teaching Hospital.
Sajith Gunaratne, a local of Wehera, Kurunegala, was the youngest of three siblings. His older sisters were both married.
Today (Tuesday, June 6) officers from the Kurunegala Police Department investigated the scene.
The locals claim that the storm drain is inadequate for the volume of water produced by heavy rains.
Wehera Kanda Watte Road is used by students from two different schools. Locals have warned them of the numerous potential death traps that lie along the route.
On Tuesday, the Kurunegala Municipal Commission inspected the area (6).
The local politicians in Kurunegala were eager to clear out the Town Park and tear down the king’s assembly hall in the centre of town.
This tragedy could have been avoided if instead they had shown the same level of enthusiasm for renovating the storm drain.