Pulasthini Rajendran alias Sarah had fled to India: Witness

The police have found sufficient evidence to show that the Katuwapitiya Church suicide bomber's widow Pulasthini Rajendran alias Sarah had fled to India by sea in September 2019, PCoI Police Unit's Chief Inspector Arjuna Mahinkanda informed the Commission yesteraday.

He said the Colombo Crimes Division (CCD) had detained a suspect believed to be Sarah's uncle on charges of helping her to flee to India from Kalawanchikudy after the Easter Sunday attacks.

The CI said following a tip off received on July 6, 2020, a team of officers attached to the PCoI police unit and the CCD launched an inquiry on Sarah, who was believed to have been in the house where the Saindamarudu attack took place on April 26, 2019 and later fled to India.

He said the police had recorded statements about Sarah from an eye witness and according to the statements she was at Mankandu, Kalmunai in September 2019.

“The eye witness informed us that Sarah came to the Batticaloa -- Kalmunai main road via a side road named Beach road and got into a butter coloured cab. The eye witness informed us that Sarah was wearing a Fardha without covering her face,” the CI said.

He said through statements recorded from the eye witness it was also revealed that Kalawanchikudi Police, Traffic Division OIC Abu Bakkar was in the cab at that time and when the eye witness tried to speak to him, the vehicle proceeded towards Batticaloa.

On July 13, 2020 the CCD had arrested OIC Abu Bakkar for concealing evidence connected to Easter Sunday attacks.

The CI said investigations had also revealed that Sarah had been hiding in three places at Kalawanchikudy and Batticaloa before fleeing to India last September.

He said Sarah is a Tamil by birth but later after her marriage to Mohammed Hasthun, the Katuwapitiya church suicide bomber, she had converted to Islam adding that investigations also revealed that a powerful person in Mannar had given her a boat to escape the country.

“In the explosion which had taken place on the night of April 26, it had been initially reported that Sarah had also died but a recent Government Analyst’s DNA report mentioned that Sarah was not present at the site of the blast,” the CI said.(Yoshitha Perera)