Sorrowful story of police constable who jumped into the waters to rescue lives and then disappeared forever!
A case was reported of a police officer who unfortunately died having got caught to a surge of water when he had tried to rescue those living in houses in Galmuruwa, Madampe during the torrential rains that came down during the past few days.
At the moment when two persons of the team of policemen who searched for houses in Galmuruwa area that had gone under water and were making and effort to close in on the crowd who were
cornered by jumping into the waters, one police constable had submerged in water at the very time when the persons to be so rescued were in sight.
This silent corpse of this particular police officer who took action to save the lives of those people was recovered by a team of navy personnel last morning (27) at a distance of about 200 metres away from the spot where he had disappeared. It was police constable Dilan Sampath, a resident of Malgamuwa in Giriulla who was attached to Madampe police station, thus not paying heed to his own life. Inspector General of Police yesterday (27) took steps to posthumously promote the constable yesterday for who having given over his life in an effort to rescue a family who were cordoned by water.
The water level of Galmuruwa, Madampe had been rapidly rising at 11.30 in the morning of last twenty fifth and on a call received that a crowd including children were trapped in a number of houses in this area, the Puttalam district secretary who promptly went into action pledged that he would see that the rescue team of Sri Lanka Navy Force would be dispatched within half hour. By that time officers of Madampe Disaster Management Unit were on their way towards this location while Madampe police too had already arrived on the scene.
The police officer in charge, Mr. Wasantha Kumara who visited the place first of all made arrangements to notify relevant units concerned about the situation in Galwala area in Galmuruwa and thereby two police officers had travelled to the area where the victims were. CCTV cameras nearby has recorded both of them moving towards the said location.
Mrs. P. Shanthi Kumari of Galwala area in Galmuruwa who was an eye witness to this incident had this to say: "Within the space of a few minutes the waters suddenly kept increasing. There was no elderly male either in the house. I became helpless with my two girls and boy. I grasped the phone ... gave a call to the owner of the land and told her that the waters were on the increase and there was no way to go. It was she who dialled everyone around the place and informed them. We really saw these two police officers approaching us. One of them came swimming with no problem at all while the other one remained back. At once he disappeared and then came to the surface and disappeared again. There was nothing at all that we could do. I was actually absolutely left helpless with the three children. This happened because this police officer came to our rescue".
Police constable Dilan Sampath has joined Sri Lanka Police Service in the year 2009 and has been in service in the capacity of an Intelligence Service officer at Matara, Deniyaya, Wennappuwa, Chilaw and finally with Madampe police station.
This police hero Dilan Sampath had been competent in sports even from his small age and the boost he got in water polo in Ma Oya which flows from Giriulla which is his village and swimming actually stood him in good stead which was a reason as far as for him to enlist with the police service. Dilan Sampath has even been a member of the police cricket team and is popular as someone who displayed a talent in developing public relationships as well. For this very reason instructions were given by higher ups to enlist him with the police intelligence force. Dilan though serving the police force had an innocent heart as that of a small child and is known as someone whose heart would melt in the case of a tragedy to anybody for that matter, it is learned. Dilan lost his life because of this very reason.
Prasad Poornamal of Chilaw
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