Her name is Padma Wickramaratne. She is the mother of three children and the second child is a child with special needs. She was married to Gerard Mervyn Perera. He worked at the Colombo dockyard. Padma’s family life turned upside down when her third child was six months old.
It was June 2, 2002. At that time, Padma and Gerard were lived at Gerard’s house at No. 52 / B / 2, Ehetugahagodella, Mihindu Mawatha, Gonagaha. A group of Wattala police official arrived and arrested Gerard, claiming he was a wanted suspect of a three-person murder. Padma’s husband was mistakenly arrested by the Wattala Police for another offense committed by a man same named Gerard.
Padma cried when Gerard was taken away by the police. She had to go to the police with her three infants.
Gerard, who was tortured and assaulted in police custody, returns to home as a man unable to even walk.
When we went to the Wattala police station the next day, they handed Gerard back to us saying they had made a mistake. But I did not get Gerard back, who was arrested the day before. Padma still remembers Gerard as a black, swollen man who could not walk and had no arms.
Since then, Padma and Gerard have had a bad era. Padma had to look after her three children and work hard to get her husband healed. After several days of treatment at Nawaloka Hospital, Gerard returned home with some relief, reassuring Padma. Padma, who had no job, was busy 24 hours a day for Gerard and his three children.
Gerard filed a fundamental rights lawsuit in the Supreme Court alleging injustice. The OIC of the Wattala Police, Sub Inspector Suresh Gunasena and a group of officers were named as respondents.
The Supreme Court ruled that Gerard’s fundamental rights had been violated in the case, and ordered the defendant to pay damages to him and to pay the Nawaloka Hospital fee for Gerard’s treatment. The Supreme Court also recommended that the inhumane attack be prosecuted under the Anti-Torture Act.
Accordingly, the Attorney General had filed a case in the Negombo High Court in 2003 against the police officers who had tortured Gerard under the Anti-Torture Act.
Gerard’s testimony in this case is very important, and he was scheduled to testify on December 12, 2004. But before that, on November 21, 2004, while traveling in a Minuwangoda-Fort bus, Gerard was shot dead by a group in the Mahabage area.
Subsequent investigations revealed that the murder was carried out by Sub Inspector Suresh. However, in the end, Padma Gonagaha, who was alone with her three children, closed the house and went to Gampaha, Padma’s home. The main house belonged to his younger brother and he did not throw away the Padma at that time. Gerard’s house was closed, and Padma’s sister asked him to come and tell her to come someday.
Meanwhile, Sub Inspector Suresh and others were acquitted in the Negombo High Court case. Padma felt as if the whole world had collapsed in front of her. Padma, with the help of various people, filed a case in the Court of Appeal challenging the decision to return once again for the injustice done to her.
Meanwhile, the murder case related to the murder of Gerard by the Attorney General was heard in the Negombo High Court and the verdict was given ten years later. That was in 2015. The Negombo High Court sentenced two of Gerard’s killers to death, including the police officer.
Also, 17 years later, the case against Gerard Mervyn Perera for torture ended in 2019, convicting two of the accused.
In the midst of all this, Padma was actually between sleep and no sleep. Although she closed her eyes at night, she feared that the officers involved in the murder would come and endanger her and her children’s lives. It was only after 2019 that Padma began to breathe a sigh of relief as she had been living a miserable life selling short eats for nearly 15 years.
Meanwhile, Padma’s brother had asked Padma to leave the house recently. There she asked her sister to return her house to her. The sister had objected to this, saying that she too had a right to this house as she had lived in it for 13 years.
Padma now has to face an incident like a bull stabbing a man who fell from a tree. She went to the police asking for a house and sought legal help. There, Padma was asked to give her sister some time to leave the house. Meanwhile, Padma has gone to Gonahena’s house to sign a memorandum of understanding with her sister. It is said that her sister had snatched a sharp knife and had an altercation with Padma.
She had complained to the police that Padma had trespassed on her land and assaulted her. Here Padma is in a desperate situation. That is because they have lost their home and have nowhere to go. Today she is caring for a child with special needs, and she is also caring for her elderly mother and father.
After years of misery without a husband, she struggled to raise her children, and she fell back on the stove and became helpless.