SLN woman soldier dies

[TamilNet, Thursday, 30 October 2003, 14:35 GMT]
A twenty-three year old woman soldier of the Sri Lanka Navy, Ms. Ratnayake Mudiansalagae Nanithakumari, was found dead Wednesday with gunshot injuries in her room at the Karainagar navy detachment in the Jaffna district, police said.

Evidence led at the inquest held into the death by acting Kayts Magistrate, Mr. M.Thirunavukarasu, Wednesday and Thursday, showed that on the day of incident the deceased was alone in her room and the other seven occupants had gone for work, court sources said

Gunshots were heard from her room and later navy personnel rushed to the site and found her dead with gunshot injuries on her head, police said.

A T56 rifle was found near her body with a letter written in the Sinhala language, the acting Magistrate was told. The acting magistrate directed the police to send the body of the deceased for postmortem examination before the Colombo Judicial Medical Officer, legal sources said.

The inquest has not been completed yet, sources said.