28 March, 2024

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Underage Rape Victim Beaten By Police Prior To Being Produced Before JMO

A woman police constable at the Haputale police is alleged to have beaten the 14 year old girl who was recently raped warning her against revealing details of the rapist to the Judicial Medical Officer (JMO).

According to new information received, on July 7, the woman police constable had beaten the young girl, several times with a cane onto her waist and threatened the child not to tell the JMO she had being raped or details of her rapist, a 29 year old bus driver.Police

*Contrary to the portrayal in the Sri Lanka police website of a ‘friendly and equal service to all’ as shown in the picture above, in reality it appears that the police officers do not carry out their duty in ensuring that justice is meted out to all.

“On the 7th of July when she went to the Haputale Police station, a police woman constable, had beaten the young girl, and told her that when she is taken to the judicial medical officer, not to reveal that she had been raped by the bus driver. She had been beaten with a cane several times on her waistline and threatened her not to tell her story to the doctor – the Judicial Medical Officer (JM0). Despite such threats and being beaten by the police woman constable the young girl has revealed detailed information about her ordeal to the JMO on everything that had taken place during the abduction and rape,” the Asian Human Rights Commission said.

According to the victim, she had been raped twice on the same day by the bus driver. The woman police constable had threatened to kill the victim’s parents and everyone else in the family if she revealed details of the rape or rapist to the JMO.

AHRC said that the conduct of the woman police constable at the Haputale police station needs to be thoroughly investigated and she should be dealt with for the attempted sabotage of justice.

The victim was abducted and raped by her school bus driver on 19th June 2016. Even though the family of the victim lodged a complaint, the culprit, was released without being produced before a Magistrate. The victim’s family says that the police are not taking action against the incident because they belong to the Tamil minority, while the alleged rapist belongs to the majority Sinhala community.

Related posts;

Alleged Rapist Of 14 Year Old Girl From Minority Community Released By Police

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Latest comments

  • 8
    2

    What we the readers failed to findout is why the Woman Police Constable behaved in this manner??

    No WPC or a PC would behave in this manner if there was no influence on them by someone who weild power.
    Most of the police brutality and misdemeanors ocurr due to powerful external influence.

    These frontline men are women of the police are from poor families. many mouths depend on their meager salaries.
    They are not stupid to act in a rash manner in order to loose their jobs.
    They are forced to do such acts to secure their jobs and promotion prospects.
    THEY ARE NOT BRUTES. THEY ARE HUMAN BEING LIKE YOU AND ME.

    Why is minister Digital of yahapalanaya a catholic and practicing Church goer silent on this matter.
    I BRING UP THIS ISSUE OF RELIGION BECAUSE BASIL FERNANDO OF AHRC HAS RAISED THIS ISSUE IN HIS PERVIOUS ARTICLE.
    iS THIS ngo fERNANDO INTEND ON DISCREETLY WANTING TO CREATE A RELIGIOUS TENSION??
    IS THIS A HIDDEN AGENDA OF BASIL & THE AHRC IN THE NAME OF HUMAN RIGHTS?

    • 7
      0

      Don’t worry IGP Pujitha will hold a Pooja at Gangaramaya Temple and will come to know how all this happened.Then he will hold another Pooja and obtain instructions from his deities and hush things up!! Remember how he openly revealed that he got the IGP job by going to the Gangaramaya temple and offered Pooja at 3 am each morning to get his current job?

    • 7
      0

      thondamanny,

      I just answered an almost identical query from you in the article by Basil Fernando. What hidden agenda have you got? Your name sounds Tamil, but you can hardly be anything other than a pretty bigoted Sinhala-Buddhist, which means that you are no disciple of Gauthama.

      Why are you defending some WPC who is almost certainly unknown to you? These people certainly come from poor backgrounds, so what? They try to act as though we can be ordered around by them, just because they are given guns!

      Prabhakaran was NOT from the poorest of backgrounds, but I’m sure many Tigers were. Why not make excuses for them to on the same grounds. This Haputale case appears to be so cut and dried that severe punishment has to be meted out, unless, as some people do, you feel that we should punish nobody. That poor, innocent, 14 year old has been traumatised. Isn’t that what we should be concerned about? Not some PC and some WPC. I’m not going to study any more details; I leave that to Basil Fernando, and thank God (if such a being exists!) that people like him are around.

      What is YOUR identity; I think that most regular readers of CT know mine! And so, instead of applauding what Basil Fernando is doing, you draw red herrings across the trails of all of us. What, I repeat, is YOUR agendum?

  • 10
    0

    MS/RW duo are awaiting their Intelligence services Report .. if the J.O.
    is planning a protest ? Will the Hill Country M.PP take the cue?

    • 21
      0

      This is sad.
      A single child was refused admission to school by falsely accusing of him having AIDS and you had the President, ministers from both sides of isle falling over each other to help.

      This child has been raped destroying her childhood and most probably her adult life, and then abused by the Police and judiciary. Not a word from the President, PM, Ministers or even the bleeding heart defenders of women and children’s rights. Not even the TNA Shame.

      • 2
        1

        Burt, Why do you blame only TNA when there are powerful Ministers like
        Thigamparam,Mano Gneshan,Rhathakrishnan and many more M.PP from upcountry. At the same time, I don’t justify the inaction of the Opposition Leader either.He should have been the 1st person to take up this matter with the relevant authorities.

        • 1
          0

          naren: You have said: “Burt, Why do you blame only TNA?” Actually it was I who put the question mark in in my pedantic/ pedagogical way. My sole occupation has been teaching English; don’t you think that I’ve got to give you a few lessons?

          Apart from the question mark being missing, the fact that Burt has mentioned President, . . . children’s rights” – do you want him to put in the names of all the 3 billion people living on planet earth, . . . and perhaps all the deities that various people believe in. But then there’ll also be the devils, and the cherubim, and seraphim (just remembered that THOSE are the plurals) . . . Oh, dear this will stretch out to the edge of doom!

          Seriously, though, whom do you mean by “Opposition Leader”? MaRa? No hope that he will condemn; more likely he will condone, as he did in 2009.

          And while we all indulge in saying clever things, and making comments in keeping with our various political agenda, nothing happens! That is the problem with Sri Lanka today! We should not be making all these comments; we ought to have elected a government with a clear mandate, unambiguously stated, for the judicial mechanisms to have got going the moment this was reported. Instead we ALL try to score debating points.

          We are ALL to BLAME!

  • 14
    1

    This looks more like personal than racial. Police Constable might have some relationship to the accused. That should be the reason for threats not because of victim is Tamil.

    • 6
      0

      How can you separate social from racial in this context?

      I have the impression that both Police and Armed Forces are still predominantly Sinhalese; Hindus certainly would be very few.

      Up-Country Tamils are still a very neglected lot. They are so poor that they attend the Estate School, whereas the Sinhalese shun the village school. There is just one large Tamil School in Haputale, and one again in Bandarawela – neither with facilities comparable with the corresponding Sinhalese schools. Haputale town has only one Sinhalese school, but “the Loku Bandara Electorate of Haputale” has two Sinhalese “National Schools”. As for Bandarawela Town, there are six large Sinhalese schools, one of them of gargantuan proportions. Traffic in the town is a nightmare at school opening and closing times.

      There are two private Anglican schools – S. Thomas’; we’ve been trying to get more Tamil students in to them, but can’t. Tamil parents just don’t have the resources. Other complications also there are for these schools; their teachers are treated shabbily, and the parents of the children are not any more sophisticated or cultured than those of children attending the State Schools. They tend to be wealthy and desire status (i.e. the Mudalalis), and so, Colombo types dominate the decision making, while “hardly ever” visiting the area. I was going to say “never”, but five days ago (Tuesday, the 12th) there was an actual S. Thomas’ Board of Governors meeting at Gurutalawa the day the re-furbished swimming pool was declared open.

      https://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/the-whited-thomian-sepulchres-the-pharisees-who-cheat/

      Although the election of M.Ps is at District Level, the major parties organise their campaigns in terms of the old electorates, and electorates more or less prevail as local government bodies. Owing to objections from the Loku Bandara Family, the request for re-drawing the boundaries of the Bandarawela and Haputale electorates failed. My house is now within the Municipal Council Area of Bandarawela, but getting here from the town I actually have to pass through a section of the Haputale Electorate. Also, the Bandarawela District Hospital, and the Bandarawela Pradeshiya Sabha Office are situated on the road to Ettampitiya, but are within a “Sinhalese enclave” which belongs to the Haputale Pradeshiya Sabha (and therefore “electorate” as far as “orgnisers” are concerned.

      https://www.google.lk/maps/@6.9127572,80.9742393,12z?hl=en-GB

      Please see if this link to Google maps helps you understand. Of course, this is not all that popular with the Sinhalese residents, either. To transact certain sorts of routine business, villagers from Eranawela and Ettalapitiya have to bus it, first to Bandarawela town, and then past the Bandarawela Divisional Secretariat to Diyatalawa, where the Haputale Divisional Secretariat is located. All this to ensure that Haputale-Haldummulla doesn’t become a “demala” majority Pradedeshiya Sabha area.

      Here’s something else: there has never been a Petrol Shed in Diyatalawa, although now there are THREE in Bandarawela town, THREE in Welimada, ONE in Haputale town (that’s ancient), and only recently, ONE in Boralanda. Petrol is sold in two shops at least in Diyatalawa; Prasanna Oil Stores, one is called. The price at a shed is 117/=, I BOUGHT one litre recently from this Prasanna place for 130/=; they explained to me that they had to pay the bowser something extra, a wag told me it does cost them something: Rs 50/= for petrol from the armed forces.

      In one week in June, I went three times to Gurutalawa – to collect data for the Education Ministry from S. Thomas’ and the only Muslim National School in Uva: Ramadhan fasting didn’t matter, I only had to ascertain the spirit in which the work was being carried out by the Principal and teachers. Third Party Validation of World Bank loans it is called. The middle day was the Prize Giving at S. Thomas’ – which meant carrying a lounge suit by bus. I needed more data from the two schools, so I set out on my motor bike through Welimada on Thursday, 16th. I decided to return via the little used road through Galedanda (where I wanted to meet some people) and Diyatalawa. At the sixth mile post (that is on the Welimada to Haputale road which has been done finally about six months ago – yes, by THIS government), above the Headmaster’s bungalow, where one had to turn off the main road, I realsied that I probably needed more petrol. There was one of those ubiquitous “three wheel parks” at that point and they told me that there was a new petrol shed at Boralanda, but that petrol was also available in Diyatalawa in shops: 12 difficult miles away. I went the two miles to Boralanda and pumped a full tank. In Galedanda, there was to-ing and fro-ing to find places, and the roads were steep. It was night, but I indulged in some gossip at a shop where a quite knowledgeable man informed me, among other things, that petrol was available in Diyatalawa shops.

      When I finally got to Diyatalawa, about 8.00 p.m. I decided that I had run so much on first gear that it would be possible to add another litre, and so I started asking where to buy petrol. There was nothing hush hush about it; one place had closed for the night, but at the other, where I told them that I was desperate for petrol to get to Bandarawela having started from Welimada, they said cheerfully that I could even have enough petrol to get back to Welimada. And so, the petrol was brought in a one litre glass Sprite bottle and poured in. I just wanted to make sure that I could report to somebody (that is what I am now doing!) that petrol is sold in shops in this town like no other at Rs 130/= per litre.

      I have said repeatedly on CT that I’m a poor villager, and true it is that I can hardly ever supplement my meagre pension (which was sent up by only a thousand rupees after all the election promises: no problem with that – I always knew that those promises couldn’t possibly be honoured!)- with much more than two thousand rupees a week from my teaching of IELTS, of which I’m the sole British Council Registration Centre in Uva. Most people go to Colombo since they feel that a villager cannot know any English; and then I tend to send them for the exam with no more than five or six lessons – not having mastered something called “Guru Mushtiya” in Sinhala – that is not revealing that there are books with listening and reading answers, not to mention all the stuff now available in the Internet. What they cannot possibly do is mark their own written work, and, perhaps, they require their speaking to be recorded (tablets do it pretty well), and played back to them. This “guru mushtiya” business is very important in the private tuition racket, and it may be very old in our Sinhalese culture: the Ayurvedic veda mahattayas never reveal their secrets.

      The point of that grumble is that in commenting on one of the many accounts of the Haputale rape, an expat (a Tamil, at that!) said he felt sorry for some policeman who relieved him of 3K, after harassing him over imaginary drink driving, when the cop told him that he had to be on duty “all night”. What else do these guys expect to do, after joining the police?

      Well, one thing I can tell you: they trade in wild boar meat. When I was a kid, there were no wild boar here. Now they are a nuisance, and perhaps danger as well, considering how strong they are. Villagers dare not shoot them, even if they have guns, because the police would be after them. With the large carnivores (leopard, mainly) being fewer, it may be the case that certain other species are swelling in numbers. Another place I visited last month to see how Bilingual Education is faring was Kuda Oya, between Wellawaya and Thanmalwila. That was an area where you could get venison freely thirty or forty years ago. But no longer; after our accursed war, we are still being jack-booted. I may have two vegan friends, but I’m pretty omnivorous myself, provided we don’t drive species to extinction. As I’ve said, the carnivores and the elephants are in danger, but not some of these herbivores – as a direct result of the carnivores being exterminated. And then, we have the feral dogs, which our ex-Maha Rajano did not want controlled, everywhere.

      The problem is that hatred of the Police is balanced by the xenophobia of “the majority community”. It is certainly time we began to act more intelligently.

      • 2
        0

        A very interesting insight into events in the hills around Bandarawela.

        Tell me, Sinhala Man, do the people of those green hills remember the famous Bindunuwewa Massacre. Or has it all been consigned to the dustbin of history. The ‘case’ was truly Sri Lanka’s Finest Hour – NOT! But then nobody has ever been found guilty of killing when it is done in the name of our government.

        So, let’s get up-to-date: in the light of 28 people killed and NOBODY found guilty, what is the rape of a simple, innocent girl? Just another secret for the hills of Bandarawela to keep.

        This truly is the Miracle of Asia.

  • 13
    0

    This is simple come to Piliyandala police area. Environment section OIC in Piliyanadala police station’s is destroying whole area by helping illegal garages, workshops and Dengu breeding places to operate by getting money. Many people informed to even IGP and all police officers about this corruptive person. But so far no one even interdict him or transfer (He is working more than 08 years to this police station) he is helping to operate court closed garages doing all bad practices. Even he built illegal hotel (Without CEA approval) in bank of Bolgoda river and owned many three wheels, etc. Checking his mobile for last two three years you can see he has good connections with all criminals in this area.

    • 5
      0

      Yes I fully agreed with this. I left Piliyandala Police area because of Illegal garages and Dengu breeding places. This Enviornmental Section OIC must be expelled from police service because he has done big damage to good name of Police. Newly appointed Piliyandala OIC must careful from this Enviornmental Section OIC because he is the main man behind all the criminal activities in Piliyandala and his Three wheels and Illegal hotel ownership also true.

  • 6
    0

    Please do not attempt to whitewash the P.C. She must uphold truth and justice. If this woman P.C. has caned this poor victim and is trying to subvert the course of justice by instilling fear we are compelled to ask the rulers wither
    justice in S.L. Are we being taken for a ride?

  • 6
    0

    It is curse that the security forces use violence as a strategy when a person is taken into custody.

    This culture of violence by the state sector with so much impunity is a curse that no governments have taken any measures to bring about accountability and justice to the victim.

    The security forces must be made to account for their failures and systems must be put in place to safeguard the arrested. One is innocent until proven guilty.

    The police or army officers who use violence as means must be suspended from service and be meted with due punishment if found guilty. Each police stations must have independent regulatory officer who should have access to victims to monitor that the arrested person is not tortured.

  • 4
    0

    I am sure Honorable I G P would have seen this news. He should take proper and suitable action. The POLICE Service needs a full overhaul. The pulic should support the I G P fully as he is A GENTLEMAN AND OFFICER. Lets pray for a perfect Police Department. In the absence the public of the area should act in a way that the culprit is punished.

    Police officers should atleast learn from Former Senior D I G Mr.Anura Senanayakes plight.

    • 3
      0

      R K

      “I am sure Honorable I G P would have seen this news. He should take proper and suitable action.”

      Not really; I see no evil, hear no evil and speak no evil.

  • 1
    2

    I wouldn’t be too quick to believe anything the AHRC reports. They have never been held accountable for reports of nepotism, cronyism and outright untruths to member of their own staff.

  • 1
    0

    It is all due to the impunity enjoyed by the police & Military under the DRACONIAN PTA laws. Until this inhuman laws are in force and the culture of the Buddhist Sinhalese become real Buddhists and follow the path of BUDDHA these type of brutal animal mentality will never ever change. The image of Sri Lanka is now become so low and is not considered as a rogue state. Shame, Shame

  • 1
    0

    Buddha.
    Thankfulness — Buddha and His disciples
    A story told by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá
    Buddha had disciples and he wished to send them out into the world to teach, so he asked them questions to see if they were prepared as he would have them be. “When you go to the East and to the West,” said the Buddha, “and the people shut their doors to you and refuse to speak to you, what will you do?” -The disciples answered and said: “We shall be very thankful that they do us no harm.”-“Then if they do you harm and mock, what will you do?”-“We shall be very thankful that they do not give us worse treatment.”-“If they throw you into prison?”-“We shall still be grateful that they do not kill us.”-“What if they were to kill you?” the Master asked for the last time. “Still,” answered the disciples, “we will be thankful, for they cause us to be martyrs. What more glorious fate is there than this, to die for the glory of God?” And the Buddha said: “Well done!”

    ‘Abdu’l-Baha, ‘Abdu’l-Baha in London, p. 63

  • 3
    0

    Shame, shame and shame.

    Shame on the police service, shame on the IGP, shame on the president, shame on Buddhism and finally shame on all the people of Sri Lanka.

    Say no more.

  • 2
    0

    It could not get any worse. In the name of humanity please ,please tell us “the powers BE”, what is being done about this barbarous act. No wonder, why even peace loving souls will get violent seeing and hearing this kind of atrocities. The nation calls upon the highest authority in the land to do something. As I have said earlier , doing nothing is no more an option
    For haven sake man could this kind of crime go unpunished if the roles
    were/are reversed.
    Again CT, we thank you for bringing these inhumane acts of violence to the public domain. Where are the Daily News and others of this world.
    May be to them, it is no news. As Oscar Wild had wisely said “If a dog bites a man , it is No news, but if a man bites a dog, That is NEWS”
    I leave the rest for the wider community to decide as to what should be done.
    The truth is that, this is tip of an iceberg especially where minority citizens are concerned. This can not go on

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