Victim-care note: This file documents conflict-related sexual violence because it was central to the charge and judgment. It omits graphic detail. The convicted defendants are identified collectively where individual names are not necessary to understand the court outcome.
Four disappearances in one day
On September 7, 1996, Krishanthi Kumaraswamy, an 18-year-old student at Chundikuli Girls’ School, was returning home after sitting an advanced-level chemistry examination. The later prosecution established that she was stopped and forcibly detained near the Chemmani security checkpoint on the route to Kaithady.
When she did not return, her mother Rasamma, her 16-year-old brother Pranavan and family friend and neighbor Siddambaram Kirubamoorthy went to look for her. They, too, disappeared after going to the checkpoint. Published sources vary in the English spellings of several names; this file uses the spellings in the Daily Mirror’s interview with the state counsel who prosecuted the case.
Investigation and recovery
The area was under military control. Investigators identified the personnel assigned to the checkpoint, and military police and the Criminal Investigation Department questioned them. According to former state counsel Prashanthi Mahindaratne, statements and physical evidence led investigators to the burial place.
The four bodies were exhumed about 45 days after the disappearances. Medical examination and circumstantial evidence supported the prosecution’s case that all four had been killed and that Krishanthi had been sexually assaulted. This page does not reproduce the condition of the bodies.
The Trial-at-Bar
Nine service personnel were indicted. One died while the case was pending, two were acquitted, and six were convicted, including one defendant tried in absentia after escaping custody. The convictions covered the abduction, sexual assault and murder of Krishanthi and the murders of the three people who searched for her.
The six received death sentences. A death sentence is recorded here as the court’s penalty, not as an execution. The Supreme Court later affirmed the convictions, even while rejecting the admissibility of some statements and relying on the remaining evidence that it found sufficient.
Later proceedings
On June 3, 2025, Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court unanimously refused leave to proceed with a fundamental-rights petition by five imprisoned convicts. They had argued that decades on death row should lead to a presidential pardon or commutation. The court did not treat either measure as a legal entitlement.
The sixth convicted defendant had escaped during the original proceedings and was tried in absentia. In the 2025 prosecutor interview, his whereabouts—and whether he was still alive—remained unknown. The file therefore classifies the murders as adjudicated while preserving the enforcement gap.
The separate Chemmani investigation
At sentencing, convicted former lance corporal Somaratne Rajapakse alleged that many other bodies had been buried in the Chemmani area. That allegation prompted a separate investigation and exhumations. Amnesty International documented threats against him and his family as he was summoned to identify possible grave locations.
Approximately 15 sets of remains were recovered in the 1999 work described by the prosecutor. New excavations beginning in 2025 concerned another Chemmani site and unidentified victims. Those investigations are not folded into the four-victim case or presented as additional convictions.
Current status
The four murders and conflict-related sexual violence were adjudicated, and the six convictions were affirmed. Five convicted people remained in custody as of the June 2025 petition; one convicted person remained unaccounted for.
Wider questions raised by the Chemmani allegations have a separate evidentiary and legal history. The adjudicated status here applies only to the crimes against Krishanthi Kumaraswamy, Rasamma, Pranavan and Siddambaram Kirubamoorthy.
Frequently asked questions
Why does this page use “adjudicated” rather than simply “solved”?
Courts convicted six defendants, but one remained at large and the case exposed wider allegations that were not resolved by these convictions.
Were all nine people indicted convicted?
No. One died while the case was pending, two were acquitted and six were convicted.
Were the death sentences carried out?
The reliable record reviewed documents death sentences, not executions. This page does not equate the penalty imposed with its implementation.
Sources
- Daily Mirror — July 3, 2025Detailed interview with the state counsel who prosecuted the case, covering the victims, investigation, evidence, six convictions, acquittals, appeal and fugitive.
- Sunday Times — June 3, 2025Supreme Court dismissal of the petition filed by five imprisoned convicts.
- Amnesty International — August 25, 1998Contemporary record concerning convicted former lance corporal Somaratne Rajapakse and threats after the trial.
- Amnesty International — June 8, 1999Follow-up documenting threats and his summons to identify alleged Chemmani grave locations.