Police have uncovered key details regarding the incident in the Nellikkadu area of Batticaloa, where an abducted woman was rescued from an abandoned well and the remains of another woman was discovered at the same location.

Based on intelligence received by the District Intelligence Unit, investigations led to the arrest of a married couple residing in Kanchirankuda and the husband’s younger brother.

Police revealed that the suspects are connected to both incidents involving the rescued woman and the deceased.

Accordingly, a 26-year-old woman and her two-and-a-half-year-old daughter, who had been traveling from Vavunativu to Batticaloa town on 19 March, were reported missing.

The following day, the abducted woman was rescued after being found inside an abandoned well. Her daughter was later discovered on 20 March in a nearby paddy field.

During the rescue operation, the remains of another woman were also found inside the same well.

Investigations were carried out under the direction of a Senior Superintendent of Police, with officers from Kokkaddicholai, Vavunativu, Ayithiyamalai, Vellaveli, and Batticaloa Police Stations, along with the Special Crimes Investigation Unit and the District Intelligence Unit, by extensively analyzing CCTV footage.

A residence in the Vantharumoolai area was raided last night (21), leading to the arrest of a 26-year-old woman. Further questioning resulted in the arrest of her 34-year-old husband and his 22-year-old brother in the Vavunativu area, police said.

According to police, the suspects had approached the abducted woman while she was waiting for a bus with her child and offered her a three-wheeler ride to Batticaloa town for Rs. 100.

Subsequently, the female suspect had followed the victim in the town, when she had gone to recollect pawned gold jewellery, and later had reportedly offered her a fruit juice laced with intoxicating substances, rendering her unconscious.

The suspects then had robbed her of gold jewellery, including a five-pound Thali and a one-pound gold chain.

They had abandoned the child in a paddy field and had thrown the unconscious mother into the abandoned well before fleeing the scene.

The stolen jewellery had reportedly been pawned by the suspects for cash.

Further investigations revealed that the deceased woman later found in the well had been targeted in a similar manner, drugged, robbed of her jewellery, and subsequently thrown into the well by the same suspects.