Kurunegala Student Death Raises Gaming Addiction Alarm

Kurunegala student death linked to suspected online gaming has shocked parents, police and educators, raising urgent child safety concerns.

The Kurunegala student death of 16-year-old Sadaru Devmina Bandara has triggered fresh alarm over mobile phone use, online gaming, and the silent dangers facing children.

An invisible danger hidden inside a mobile phone has, in a single moment, thrown into darkness the hopes of parents who worked day and night for their children’s future. At a time when many countries are restricting mobile phone use among young children, this tragedy has once again exposed the frightening risks now emerging on Sri Lankan soil.

Sadaru Devmina Bandara, a highly talented student of a prominent international school in Kurunegala city, died after falling from the upper floor of a four-storey building on Udawalpola Road in Kurunegala, where he was living. The incident occurred in the early hours of the 8th, leaving the entire area in deep sorrow.

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Sadaru was the eldest child of a father who is a lawyer and a mother who is a teacher. He was considered exceptionally gifted, and his academic ability had led the school to advance him by two grades. He was also a loving elder brother to two younger sisters.

On the morning of the tragedy, he had been preparing to travel with his father to Colombo to sit for an Ordinary Level examination conducted by the British Council at the Bandaranaike Memorial International Conference Hall. His parents, who had temporarily moved into the rented apartment building solely for their children’s education, were instead forced to prepare for their beloved son’s final journey.

Security officers discovered the student’s body lying on the ground at around 5.00 am on Friday. Until then, his mother had believed that he was studying through the night for his examination.

Investigators later found his pair of slippers neatly placed on the open top floor, from where he is believed to have gone. More tragically, an online gambling game was still active on his father’s mobile phone, which was found at the scene.

The magistrate’s inquest and police investigations revealed that the student had left his room without his mother noticing and had reportedly been engaged in the online game for a long period using his father’s phone before his death.

A serious question has now emerged over whether the fall, which reportedly occurred around 3.35 am with a loud sound as he hit an iron fence, was an accident or linked to the influence of the mobile phone game.

The Judicial Medical Officer at the Kurunegala Teaching Hospital confirmed that death was caused by severe head and chest injuries and massive bleeding. However, the mobile phone game has drawn close attention from Scene of Crime Officers, who are examining whether it may have affected the student’s state of mind.

Police are now investigating whether the game could have distorted his thinking or provoked dangerous behaviour. Determining whether he acted in a moment where he could no longer control his thoughts has become one of the central challenges facing officers conducting investigations under the guidance of Senior Superintendent of Police Tissa Witanage.

The warning issued by Kurunegala Acting Magistrate Dr. Filisiyan Perera during the inquest was stark. He said parents must think not twice, but a thousand times, before placing a mobile phone in a child’s hand.

That warning is not merely a legal observation. It is a painful message to an entire society, where a generation may be silently falling victim to technology.