A small child sent through the body of an elephant to get rid of ill luck killed

A very sad and unfortunate incident is reported from Gokarella,Medagampola area  when a small child just 10 months old had been killed by an elephant when the child was sent under the body of an elephant in order to get rid of ill luck.

The child who had been killed in this fashion on the 19th instant in Gokarella,Meegampola area is a 10 month old baby boy Sineth Bihansa.

The parents of this child had visited the day before yesterday an annual 'perahera' at a devalaya in the area they lived in Medagampola, Gokarella.One of the relatives of the child saying in order to get rid of ill luck of this 10 month old child had carried the child and had go through the body of the elephant several times.At one instance the legs of the relative who carried the child had got tripped and fallen with the child. The observers had sais that the elephant had got panic and while the elephant was moving angrily the innocent child had been trampled and crushed to death.

However the child had been rushed to the Gokarella base hospital, but had been found dead before admission. Because of this unfortunate incident the organisers of the 'perahera' of the Medagampola devalaya had decided to cancel the 'perahera' at that instance.

It is reported that this person who is known to be a relative of the child's family had been drunk and had performed this exercise against the strong objections of the parents. This has been recorded in the initial police investigations.

It is reported that the so called relative who had carried the baby and gone through the body of the elephant too had sustained injuries and as a suspect is also under treatment at the Kurunegala teaching hospital under police guard.

WDM.Chandraratne the acting Magistrate had visited the scene of the incident at the Medagampola 'devalaya' premises had conducted the magisterial inquiry on the 20th morning.