Autopsy confirms Sri Lankan maid’s murder in Al-Jouf
March 9, 2011 03:41 pm
A Sri Lankan maid who completed her two-year contract in Saudi Arabia was murdered by her Saudi sponsor in Al-Jouf province, said the Sri Lankan Embassy in Riyadh.
Pavani Devi Sinnaiyah, 36, who was working in Al-Qurayat in Al-Jouf province, some 1,200 km from Riyadh, died under mysterious circumstances on Jan. 19. Police have arrested her Saudi sponsor in connection to her death.
“According to the autopsy report received this week from Riyadh, Sinnaiyah was murdered,” said a senior Sri Lankan diplomat. He added that the Saudi authorities are carrying out further investigations to ascertain the killer’s motive.
The maid was killed exactly five months after completing her two years.”A dispute could have possibly occurred when the sponsor wanted the maid to continue working even after the contract period,” he said, adding that Sri Lankan maids prefer to return home on completion of their employment contracts.
“Most disputes between employers and employees erupt due to the fact that the former wants the maid to stay and the latter wants to go home on completion of her contract,” he said.
Sinnaiyah was a spinster who came to the Kingdom in 2008 from Maskeliya, a town located in the island’s tea gardens.
This is the second murder of a Sri Lankan housemaid in the Kingdom since November 2010. According to the mission’s record, five Sri Lankan maids have been murdered in the same region over the past two years.
Earlier this month, Saudi authorities arrested a youth in his early 20s in Dawadmi, 340 km away from Riyadh for allegedly killing a housemaid with whom he had an affair. The maid was reportedly from India and she was four months pregnant at the time of the murder.
On Nov. 5, Pospawalli Selladurai, a 36-year-old Sri Lankan maid, was murdered in Al-Jouf. Her female sponsor is still in police custody pending further investigations.
Selladurai’s body was repatriated to Sri Lanka for burial according to her relatives’ wishes.
The Sri Lankan diplomat said his mission was still waiting for a power of attorney from Selladurai’s relatives to pursue her case in the Saudi courts. “We hope we can get suitable compensation, which could help the dead woman’s four children,” he said.
Housemaids working in the Kingdom are mainly from Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Nepal, the Philippines, India and Bangladesh, Arab News reports.
