Children humiliated at Weligama wedding hall

The employees of the Weligama Urban Council were reported to have handed over five under-aged children to the police after they  visited the premises seeking food following a wedding function that was held at the Urban Council hall.

As reported, the children aged from 12-17 years had entered the premises on the invitation of the chef at the reception hall to have lunch after the wedding.

However, they had been detained, forced to kneel down and handed over to the police on the advice of the Weligama Mayor Yamuna Kanthi by other employees, police said.

When contacted, the Mayor said that those who were handed over to the police are not poor children, but a group of children who had forcibly entered the premises.

She also denied the media reports that the children were forced to kneel till the police came. A child who faced the incident said that they faced this incident when they visited the premises to have lunch after the wedding. According to them, this is not the first time they have visited this reception hall for free food. “The mayor and several others blamed and forced us to kneel down in front of the crowd until the police came.We felt ashamed at that time. Then the police accompanied us to the police station and handed them over to our parents later. The police blamed our parents as well.”

Following this incident, the former Weligama Mayor Rehan Jayawickrama had invited the victimized children to his residence and provided them with lunch.