COLOMBO : A Colombo Court today granted permission on Saturday, July 24, to the Kirulapone Police to detain MP Rishad Bathiudeen’s wife who was arrested in connection with the death of a maidservant at the parliamentarian’s private residence.
Accordingly, Shabdeen Ayesha, 46, and three others will be interrogated for 48 hours under detention orders.The others include father-in-law Mohamed Shabdeen, brother-in-law and the intermediary who provided child labour to the Bathiudeen family.
The four suspects were produced before the Colombo Additional Magistrate Kanchana Neranjala de Silva earlier on Saturday, July 24.
The team of lawyers representing Rishad’s wife and three others, comprises Anil Silva PC, K.V Thavarasa PC, N.M.Shaheed, Rushdie Habeeb, Ameer Ali and Gowri Shankar Thavarasa. Dileepa Peiris,deputy solicitor general, appeared for the prosecution.
The defence lawyers pledged their cooperation to the police to facilitate investigations in a smooth manner.
During the inquiry, it was revealed that the deceased maidservant was employed by the father-in-law of Bathiudeen on November 18,2020 and she was over 16 years of age at the time of employment.
The maid had succumbed to severe burn injuries while receiving treatment at the Colombo National Hospital after receiving treatment for 12 days.
The girl, who was residing in the Dayagama area, had been over 16 years of age when she was brought to the parliamentarian’s private residence at Bauddhaloka Mawatha for domestic work in November last year.
The results of the post-mortem on the girl’s death had revealed that she had been sexually exploited.
The former minister’s wife, father-in-law and the middleman in question were taken into custody on Friday morning (July 23) based on the testimonies recorded from nearly 20 individuals, autopsy results and the evidence gathered by the investigating officers which pointed to the fact that the deceased girl was subjected to abuse.
The judicial medical officer who conducted the post-mortem on the girl’s death concluded that she had been sexually exploited.
The Attorney General has appointed a Deputy Solicitor General and a team to provide legal advice for the action on the case.
