30 individuals questioned over teenage domestic worker’s death

Nearly 30 persons have been interrogated over the death of the teenage domestic worker at parliamentarian Rishad Bathiudeen’s house.

Investigations are carried out on the information divulged from these statements, Police Media Spokesperson Senior DIG Ajith Rohana said.

Meanwhile, investigations are carried out into the bank accounts owned by the intermediary named Shankar who had brought the girl to the Bathiudeen residence.

Investigations have revealed that a considerable sum of money had been credited to a bank account in Agrapatna belonging to the intermediary.
Further investigations have revealed that another woman at the Bathiudeen residence had been subject to sexual abuse in the period between 2015 and 2019.

On July 15, it was reported that a 16-year-old girl, who was serving as a maid at the Bathiudeen residence, had succumbed to severe burn injuries while receiving treatment at the Colombo National Hospital after receiving treatment for 12 days.

The post-mortem revealed that she had been sexually abused for a prolonged period of time.

The girl, who was residing in the Dayagama area, had been 15 years of age when she was brought to the parliamentarian’s private residence at Bauddhaloka Mawatha for domestic work last October.

Thereby, 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.

In addition, the 44-year-old brother-in-law of MP Bathiudeen was also taken into custody and produced before the Judicial Medical Officer for allegedly sexually abusing a young woman who worked as a domestic helper at the lawmaker’s official residence from 2015 to 2019.