Woman who got children abducted for begging remanded
Colombo Additional Magistrate Harshana Kekunawela yesterday ordered the remand of a broker until May 22, who used her child to abduct child victims detained in orphanages and got them addicted to heroin, burnt certain parts of their bodies and used these children for begging.
According to information received by the police at present, the Welikada police informed court that about twenty children from orphanages have been abducted by the suspect using her own child and put them to beg on streets in the Peliyagoda area.
Police informed the court that they have commenced investigations to find the husband of the suspect involved in this incident.
Police informed the court that a child victim of this woman who had been used for begging is currently being treated at the Ridgeway Children’s Hospital. It has been revealed to the police that this eleven-year-old child is from the Hatton area and has fled from an orphanage in Ambepussa with the suspect’s child.
Welikada Police stated before the court that the suspect had forced the child to drink some white substance which the police identified as heroin and said that the child is currently being treated at the Ridgeway Children’s Hospital. After the doctors examined the child, the police told the court that the medical opinion was that he was addicted to heroin. The Welikada police also informed court that the child had burns on his lips, and the big toe of his left leg, and there was a burn mark on his anus, the size of a two-rupee coin.
The police told the court that they had obtained statements from the suspect’s child and discovered information that the child victim was made to drink heroin and his body parts had been burned and that the children had been used as beggars. According to a complaint received by the police, when the woman had been begging in Obeysekarapura with this child, police told the court that they conducted further investigations into the accident after confirming that the child was not hers.
The lawyer who appeared for the suspect stated before the court that the suspect’s child was in the children’s s home and the child victim could not tolerate the abuse that was happening to him in those homes and he had fled with the suspect’s child.
After considering relevant matters, the magistrate ordered the suspect to be remanded until the May 22. Niluka Priyadarshini, a resident of Nuge Road, Peliyagoda was remanded.