A court in Sri Lanka has sentenced a doctor accused of the rape and murder of a factory worker in 2007 to death.
In addition to the death penalty, Negambo High Court Judge M.M. Gafoor sentenced the medic to 15 years of “rigorous imprisonment” and fined him 10,000 rupees. If the fine remains unpaid, he will endure a further one year of rigorous imprisonment before, presumably, he is put to death.
Dr. Indika Balage was found guilty of raping and strangling 23-year-old garment factory worker Chamila Dissanayake before pushing her to death from the 6th floor of the Negombo hospital, an area of the hospital reserved for exclusive use as doctors’ quarters which was directly below a popular spot for suicide jumpers. Medical investigations revealed that the girl, who was attending the clinic for a routine procedure, was raped and strangled before she was dragged and pushed out of the hospital window.
A domestic worker who claimed to have seen the doctor dragging the girl was a key prosecution witness. She alleged she offered the doctor assistance when she saw him struggling with “something heavy”. He quickly about-turned to his private room, but it was minutes later that the injured girl was discovered. She died before emergency treatment could be administered.
Balage has made more than one attempt at suicide since he was apprehended soon after the incident.
