Premawathie Manamperi

Premawathi Manamperi (18 January 1949 – 17 April 1971) was a woman from Kataragama, Sri Lanka. She was arrested on suspicion of leading a rebel group that disturbed the country in 1971. That year, she was handed over to the army where she was tortured, possibly raped and paraded naked through the streets, and killed. Her death is a prominent event in Sri Lankan crime history.

Early life Manamperi was the oldest daughter of Hendrick Appuhamy, a watcher in the Department of Wildlife in Devatagama, Kataragama. She had ten brothers and sisters. She took the Dharmacharya examination and worked as a Dhamma teacher at Kataragama Dhamma School.

In 1970, Manamperi was crowned Princess of the Year at a festival in Kataragama.

Manamperi was tortured throughout the night, but revealed nothing about her activities. The lieutenant Wijesuriya made Premawathi take off her clothes and walk across the town nude while being beaten by him and another officer. Manamperi was shot in front of the Gunasiri Hotel (now Matara Hotel). According to Gunasiri, the owner of the hotel, after being shot Manamperi was still conscious and had asked for some water from him. However, the army officers had carried her away and made arrangements to bury her.

The burial was assigned to Aladdin. Recognizing Aladdin, Manamperi took off her earrings and asked him to give them to her mother. Soon after another soldier shot her in the head. Despite being shot again, the postmortem done after her body was exhumed revealed that Manamperi was still alive when she was being buried.

Along with Manamperi, six other females were arrested, and they were all detained at the Pilgrim's Rest of S.L.T.B Kataragama. that recruit and prepare existing members for revolt. Using this as a pretext, the Kataragama Police officer-in-charge (OIC), Sub-Inspector (SI) Jayasiri Udawatte took revenge on Manamperi by arresting her as she had rejected his lustful advances on earlier occasions. When she was crowned as the Kataragama beauty queen in 1970, he had met her on stage and there after showed his interest towards her which she had rejected repeatedly.

When the Kataragama police was attacked by JVP insurgents, the military was deployed to control the situation. Colonel Derrick Nugawela was appointed Military Commanding Officer of the Hambantota District on 11 April 1971. The army established their camp at the Pilgrim's Rest House. Since the police station was attacked, SI Udawatta and the other police officers also remained at the same camp.

Sri Lankan singer and songwriter, Anton Jones (3 June 1937 – 21 February 2016) whose songs were based on real incidents such as 'Rukmani Devi' (popular Sri Lankan film actress and singer), 'Maru-Sira' (controversial passing away of a death-row prisoner) wrote a song based on Manamperi's death as well. The title of the song is 'Premawathi Manamperi Tharuniya'.

Furthermore, a movie named 'Nahi Werena Verani' was filmed based on Manamperi's brutal killing. Director Dharmasiri Wickremaratne used the original case recordings to create the plot line of the movie. The role of Premawathi was acted by Sangeetha Weeraratne, while Sanath Gunathilake played the role of the Army officer Lieutenant Wijesuriya. The role of Army General in the film was played by the veteran actor Joe Abeywickrema.

Although not mentioned by name, allusions to Manamperi have been made in the 2022 Booker Winner, The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Sri Lankan author Shehan Karunatilaka as Miss Kataragama 1970 and as the Defiled Beauty Queen.

1977 election Her murder attracted national attention and was an issue in the 1977 election. UNP candidate J. R. Jayewardene discussed the attack in great detail and condemned Sirimavo Bandaranaike's handling of the crime to discredit his opponent.