by Shamindra Ferdinando, Sunday Island, Colombo

Questions on the wisdom of allocating large areas of government hospitals as doctors' living quarters have arisen following the killing of a young woman allegedly raped by a doctor who had subsequently attempted suicide and is now lying critically injured at the National Hospital, Colombo.

Following this incident, allegations of previous sex offences by the suspect have surfaced.

The entire sixth floor of the new wing of the Negombo Hospital has been allocated as living quarters for doctors working there.

Similar arrangements exist in other hospitals too.

Dr. Indika Sudarshan Balage, a resident of Maradankadawala in the Anuradhapura district, was arrested in connection with the rape and the subsequent killing of a 23-year-old factory girl, Chamila Dissanayake.

Balage, who had completed his internship, was remanded at the Negombo Prison in connection with last Monday's killing of the girl at his sixth floor quarters. He subsequently made an abortive suicide attempt.

The suspect is alleged to have used a cord to hang himself. Prisons staff rushed him to the Negombo Hospital after other prisoners sounded the alarm.

Balage's case grabbed front-page space in national newspapers in the backdrop of the recent killing of I. S. Jayasinghe, Regional Director of Health Services whose murder went almost unnoticed.

A Public Health Inspector is alleged to have attacked the senior official with grinding stone (miris athgala) after he found him having sex with the PHI's wife at his (the PHIs) home. The official who suffered the attack later died at the Ampara hospital.

Balage had been held in solitary confinement fearing a threat on his life by other prisoners. Acting Negombo Magistrate Prabath Ranasinghe on Wednesday directed Negombo police to produce the suspect before an identification parade on November 27.

Initially the rape/murder victim from Moneragala who was employed at the Katunayake Export Processing Zone was believed to have committed suicide by jumping from an upper floor of the new wing of the hospital. But an employee of a private janitorial service working there had seen the suspect dragging the body of a woman and brought it to the notice of hospital authorities.

``Had she not seen the incident, the killing may have passed as suicide,'' sources close to the investigation said.

Deputy Director of the Negombo Hospital, Dr. Ruwani Fernando, yesterday said that Balage was transferred to the National Hospital in a critical condition.

There had been no previous complaints against him. "We have already conducted an internal inquiry (into the incident) and submitted the relevant documents to the Health Ministry," she said.

Dr. Hector Weerasinghe, Director of the National Hospital said that Balage was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit of the National Hospital. "We are monitoring him closely," he said, declining to comment whether the doctor would recover.

Weerasinghe acknowledged that he hadn't come across a similar case in his career.

Chamila had been warded at ward number five (located on the fourth floor) for several days. She is said to have gifted a skirt to a 14-year-old girl warded at the same ward a day or two before her death.

Several of her colleagues who gathered at the hospital on Tuesday told The Sunday Island, that authorities could have easily swept this case under carpet. There had been previous allegations against the doctor, they alleged.

"We don't like to call him a doctor. It would be a slur on the entire medical community. He is nothing but a predator who preyed on the innocent," one girl said.

Factory workers pasted posters on the parapet wall of the hospital demanding punitive action against the doctor.

Dr Chandika Epitakaduwa of the GMOA said that they would support an impartial inquiry. "Any suspect is innocent until found guilty," he said, asserting that the association wouldn't interfere in the investigation.

The allocation of the entire sixth floor of the new wing as doctors' quarters appears to have facilitated the suspect's activities. He is believed to have taken patients there and at least a section of the medical staff appears to be aware of this.

Initial investigations conducted by police and medical authorities have revealed that the suspect had sex with the victim in his quarters. They believe that subsequently the suspect pushed her out of a window at about 12.30 pm on Monday.

Health Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva has directed the Special Investigations and Flying Squad to inquire into Chamila's killing. A squad visited the hospital and conducted investigations for three days beginning last Wednesday, ministry spokesman Wanninayake said.

The suspect is also alleged to have committed a sex offence on the younger sister of his wife, a nurse attached to Ragama hospital. The victim is alleged to have hanged herself.

In the absence of a proper investigation, the suspect had survived to prey on other unsuspecting women. He is alleged to have taken another patient to his quarters a few months ago but she had managed to flee after he forcibly kissed her.