Colombo: Two youths who grabbed a gold chain from a young woman who was struggling for her life after being caught in the tsunami, are to face murder charges in Sri Lanka as investigators have found video evidence recorded by a journalist, police said.

The woman from the southern Galle town was washed away in the tsunami which hit the area on December 26, 2004, and was rescued once, but was washed away for the second time when the waves hit the area again.

The video evidence recorded by a journalist attached to a state-run television station shows the woman being carried by two men for the second time to safety and thereafter the two men quarrelling for the gold chain, police said.

Rare case

In a rare case the Attorney General has decided to frame charges on the two men based on the available video evidence.

Police have recovered the clothes worn by the two men and obtained a part of the material of the frock which the woman was wearing at the time of the incident to further establish their case.

The victim was identified as 35-year-old Desika Kalyani, a spinster from Ginigewatta in Ratgama, 120km south of the capital.

The parents of a Galle tsunami victim yesterday welcomed moves by the police and the Attorney General's Department to follow up the case through video evidence and frame murder charges against those responsible for the crime.

The journalist Ajantha Samarawickrama said he was happy that the police had followed up the pictures which were repeatedly shown on TV and thereafter printed in the newspapers.

Attorney General S.C. Kamalasabeyson had requested Galle High Court Judge Chandrasena Rajapakse to take up the matter as a murder case on a priority basis.

Accordingly, the two men who were arrested and remanded on January 17 were produced in courts and released on a cash bail of Rs 50,000 ($500) each and Rs 500,000 ($5,000) personal bail each.

Arrests

Chief Inspector Sarath Mendis who was the brains behind the whole operation, went all out to arrest not only the duo who took her chain away but also the two others who first took her out of the water and placed her on the pavement near the Galle bus terminus, with her chain intact.

All four were arrested after a painstaking investigation by this conscientious police officer.

"This case will go down in the history of our courts as one which was concluded sans a post mortem where the body was not available. It will also be the first where no witnesses were called other than evidence on film and on video tapes," a police officer said.

The woman was employed in the coir industry and was the sole breadwinner of the family.