Protest over death and sexual assault of teenage domestic worker

by Reshiga
Jul 20, 2021

Photo credit (Twitter: @PragasGnanam)

Protesters in Colombo on Thursday demanded the arrest of the perpetrators who sexually abused a 16-year-old girl who reportedly committed suicide by setting herself on fire.

The girl had worked for MP and former minister Rishad Bathiudeen’s residence prior to her death.

Photo credit (Twitter: @PragasGnanam)

Protesters urged authorities to launch a formal investigation after the postmortem report revealed sexual abuse. MP V. Radhakrishnan stressed that it was the responsibility of the authorities to protect the hundreds of minors employed in Colombo

Senior Deputy Inspector General Ajith Rohana said the girl was hired as a domestic worker at the MP’s residence at the age of 15. She was admitted to the Colombo National Hospital in early July after setting herself on fire and died 12 days later. 

In January the minimum age of employment in Sri Lanka was raised to 16, but employing ‘young persons’ between the ages of 16-18 are subject to restrictions following an amendment to the Employment of Women Young Persons Children Act of 1956. 

Photo credit (Twitter: @PragasGnanam)

The Borella Police and the Children and Women Bureau of the Sri Lanka Police are conducting further investigations following the autopsy report.

MP Rishad Bathiudeen was arrested by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) on April 24 in connection to the Easter Sunday attacks under the Sri Lanka's widely condemned Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA). On Wednesday the Defence Minister refused to grant Bathiudeen’s request that he be restricted to his home from CID detention.
 

Add new comment

About text formats

Plain text

  • No HTML tags allowed.
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
  • Web page addresses and email addresses turn into links automatically.
  • Global and entity tokens are replaced with their values. Browse available tokens.

Restricted HTML

  • You can align images (data-align="center"), but also videos, blockquotes, and so on.
  • You can caption images (data-caption="Text"), but also videos, blockquotes, and so on.
  • Global and entity tokens are replaced with their values. Browse available tokens.
  • You can embed media items (using the <drupal-media> tag).

We need your support

Sri Lanka is one of the most dangerous places in the world to be a journalist. Tamil journalists are particularly at threat, with at least 41 media workers known to have been killed by the Sri Lankan state or its paramilitaries during and after the armed conflict.

Despite the risks, our team on the ground remain committed to providing detailed and accurate reporting of developments in the Tamil homeland, across the island and around the world, as well as providing expert analysis and insight from the Tamil point of view

We need your support in keeping our journalism going. Support our work today.

link button