Second post-mortem on Ishalini’s body | Page 2 | Sunday Observer

Second post-mortem on Ishalini’s body

1 August, 2021
The body of Ishalini Jude, the domestic aide who committed suicide by setting herself on fire, was exhumed at the Dayagama public cemetery in Kandy on Friday for the second postmortem at the Peradeniya Teaching Hospital. Here her mother and relatives waiting to identify the body. (On right): The body being exhumed.  (Pic: Lake House Kandy branch)
The body of Ishalini Jude, the domestic aide who committed suicide by setting herself on fire, was exhumed at the Dayagama public cemetery in Kandy on Friday for the second postmortem at the Peradeniya Teaching Hospital. Here her mother and relatives waiting to identify the body. (On right): The body being exhumed. (Pic: Lake House Kandy branch)

The second postmortem on the body of the 16-year-old domestic aide, who died under questionable circumstances at MP Rishad Bathiudeen’s residence began at the Peradeniya Teaching Hospital yesterday morning.

The body of the girl, Ishalini, was ordered to be exhumed by the Nuwara Eliya Magistrate Lushaka Kumari Dharmakeerthi after her mother refused to accept that her daughter committed suicide. The doctors scanned the body to check if there were any bone fractures before it was dissected, the hospital sources said.

A three-member panel of experts were appointed to perform the second postmortem. The members of the panel are Professor of Forensic Medicine at the Medical Faculty of the University of Colombo Jean Perera, Head of the Department of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology at the Medical Faculty of the University of Colombo Dr. Sameera Gunwardena and Consultant Judicial Medical Officer at the Peradeniya Teaching Hospital Dr. Prabhath Senasinghe.

A broker had brought the girl to the former Minister and MP Bathiudeen’s house as a domestic helper in October last year. The MPs wife, father-in-law and a brother-in-law were arrested and are being detained for questioning by the Police.

Her tragic death and subsequent revelation in the postmortem of long term sexual abuse, sparked islandwide protests by estate workers and civil rights groups, demanding justice for Ishalini.

The postmortem report will be handed over to the Nuwara Eliya Magistrate later.

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