A convict sentenced to death in connection with the 2015 abduction, gang rape, and murder of 18-year-old schoolgirl Sivaloganathan Vidya in Jaffna has reportedly died by suicide while in prison.

The deceased has been identified as 46-year-old Poobalasingham Jeyakumar, according to reports from Ada Derana.

The Department of Prisons confirmed that the inmate, who was being held at Jaffna Prison, died by suicide last night (24).

The case had recently returned to public attention after the Supreme Court reaffirmed the death sentences imposed by a three-member High Court trial-at-bar on four defendants, including ‘Swiss Kumar’, while dismissing their appeals for acquittal.

The Supreme Court, in its judgment delivered by a five-member bench headed by Chief Justice Preethi Padman Surasena, upheld the convictions but acquitted two other accused in the same case.

At the time the ruling was delivered, three of the death-row prisoners, including the deceased, had appeared before the court via Zoom.