A 34-year-old Tamil man has died by suicide after being brutally assaulted by villagers in Ramboda, Nuwara Eliya, who mistook him for a thief. Video footage of the assault was later circulated on social media, prompting the victim to take his own life.
The victim, identified as Ramachandran Puwaneswaran alias Murali, a resident of Rothschild Estate in Pussellawa, had fallen asleep while travelling on a bus from Colombo to Welimada and missed his stop. He alighted in Ramboda around 2 a.m. and attempted to find his way to a relative’s home.
Lost and disoriented, Puwaneswaran knocked on the door of a house to seek help. The occupants, assuming he was a robber, raised alarms. Neighbours rushed to the scene, tied him to a tree, and assaulted him before handing him over to the Kotmale police.
Police inquiries later confirmed his innocence. He was released on bail and returned to his relatives in Pussellawa after receiving a medical examination.
However, the humiliation was compounded when a video of the assault was uploaded and widely shared on social media. Shortly afterwards, Puwaneswaran took his own life by hanging.
The Officer-in-Charge of Kotmale Police, Vajira Ratnayake, confirmed an investigation into the incident.