Sampath, a Police Constable, was posthumously promoted to the rank of Sergeant by the IGP on Sunday (27). He had joined the Police force on October 4, 2009, and since then had worked in Matara, Deniyaya, Wennappuwa, Chilaw and finally in Madampe, as a Police Intelligence Officer.
Sergeant Sampath, according to family members, had been good in sports from an early age. Swimming was one of his favourite sports. As a child, he excelled in swimming in the Maoya in his village in Giriulla. And it was his skill in swimming which got him selected to the Police Force.
While in the Force, he actively participated in the Police Cricket team and was known for being someone who could easily make friends. As a result, his senior officers had recommended that he be recruited into the intelligence unit of the Police.
According to colleagues, he would never hesitate to help someone in need and it was this characteristic which led to his untimely death last week.On May 25, at around 11.30 am, this writer was informed that the water levels in the Galmuruwa, Galwala area in Madampe were fast increasing and that a few residents, including children, were trapped in some of the houses there. With this information, I called the Puttalam District Secretariat and he promised to send a Navy rescue team to the area within half an hour. In the meantime, the Madampe Disaster Management Centre officers were already on their way to the location and the Madampe Police who were also alerted, reached the location.
Madampe Police OIC Wasantha Kumara, who came to the location with a team of officers, initially informed the relevant agencies of the situation in Galmuruwa. In the meantime, two officers went to the area where residents were trapped.These officers were Sergeant Sampath and Sergeant Wijesiri. CCTV cameras in the area had managed to capture the manner in which these two officers were trying to get to the people.
The writer witnessed the OIC calling for more backup and it was then that Sergeant Sampath said that he would go forward and investigate further. Sergeant Wijesiri recalling the events of the day said, “When we went further, we heard a few children shouting for help. Sergeant Sampath told me, ‘Look at those poor kids, they sound extremely frightened. I think the water level is going to increase further. If the lake overflows, we will all be in deep trouble’.”
“‘You wait here, I will go look,’ said Sampath, but I was not so sure of that, so I asked him to turn back. The children kept shouting at us, but we could not hear what they were saying, given the heavy rain at the time.”Sergeant Sampath however, took the decision to move ahead and started swimming towards the house. It was then that he was suddenly pulled into the water.
“I could do nothing to save him. I started shouting for help, but no one could hear me because of the noise of the rainfall. I made my way back to the OIC as fast as possible and informed him of what happened,” continued Sergeant Wijesiri.Half an hour later, the Naval team showed up and started looking for him, but it was too late by that time. Sampath had gotten into the water in the hopes of rescuing the children, but his rescue came too late.
On that day, the Police had showed up at the location as a result of a 119 emergency call and a call to the Disaster Management Centre hotline. With the heavy rains, a large body of water was moving across the area.“The water level drastically increased in our area within a couple of minutes,” said Shanthi Kumari, one of the residents rescued from Galwala. “There were no men in the house. I called the owner of our estate and told her that we were being surrounded by water and we had no way of getting out. She was the one who called everyone.”
“We saw the two police officers coming towards us. One of them started swimming towards us and then all of a sudden, he disappeared. He came up and then went into the water again. We could do nothing to save him. I was stranded with three children. I am distraught that it happened because he came to rescue us.” Two days later, on Sunday morning, the Naval team found the body of Sergeant Sampath. Preliminary Magisterial inquiries were held and his body was transferred to the Chilaw Base Hospital for the post-mortem to be conducted. His final rites were to be held yesterday (28) in his hometown of Giriulla, Malgamuwa, with full Police honours. A farewell befitting a hero.
