Grandfather of 5-year-old found dead in Mulleriyawa arrested
June 10, 2023 10:31 pm
Police have arrested the grandfather of the 05-year-old boy whose body was found with cut injuries at a construction site in Mulleriyawa, Ada Derana reporter said.
He will be produced before the courts tomorrow (June 11), according to the reporter.
The child, who had suffered cut wounds initially believed to have been caused by the pieces of a broken glass bottle, was found dead on Thursday evening (June 08) at a construction site in the Mulleriyawa police division.
The investigators observed that the five-year-old, named Jonathan Mark Fonseka had died of excessive bleeding. Meanwhile, pieces of a broken glass bottle too were found approximately 4 feet away from the body. But this raised suspicions as the investigators could not find any blood stains between the body and the shards.
Later, a grass cutter who had been in the vicinity of the child on that day was arrested in connection with the child’s death.
Making a startling revelation during the interrogations, the suspect admitted that the boy had not, in fact, died from cut wounds caused by the shards of a broken glass bottle as initially suspected.
In his confession, the 51-year-old grass cutter confessed that the child had died after the blades of his lawnmower had struck the boy accidentally. Grappled with panic, the suspect went on to place the shards of a broken glass bottle near the body, to make it look like the apparent cause of the critical injuries suffered by the child.
The grass cutter was placed behind bars on remand until June 15, after being produced before the earlier today.
It was reported that the child had been looked after by his grandparents during the daytime, while his mother, who is separated from her husband, was away at work. However, the grandfather, who went out to get some work done on the day of the incident, had left the child with the suspect who was working at the construction site where he served as a caretaker.
Meanwhile, the body of the child was handed over to the parents following the completion of the post-mortem examination at the Infectious Disease Hospital (IDH) in Mulleriyawa.
