Parliamentarian Rishad Bathiudeen, his wife, and his father-in-law have been further remanded over the case of a teenage domestic worker who died of burn injuries while serving the Bathiudeen household.
They were ordered to be remanded until September 17, when the case was taken up today (September 06) before Colombo Additional Magistrate Rajindra Jayasuriya.
However, the magistrate also ordered Bathiudeen’s brother-in-law Mohamed Ismat and Ponnaiya Pandaram, the intermediary who had brought the girl to the Bathiudeen residence, to be released on bail.
On July 15, the 16-year-old girl, who was serving as domestic help at the Bathiudeen residence, succumbed to severe burn injuries while receiving treatment at the Colombo National Hospital. She had been under medical care for 12 days since her admission to the hospital on July 03.
Jude Kumar Ishalini, who was residing in the Dayagama area, had been 15 years of age when she was brought to the parliamentarian’s residence at Bauddhaloka Mawatha for domestic work last October.
The judicial medical officer who conducted the post-mortem on the girl’s death concluded that she had been sexually exploited.
Thereby, the former minister’s wife, father-in-law, and the middleman in question were taken into custody on 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.
Her remains were exhumed on July 30 for a second postmortem by a court-appointed specialist medical team.
On August 23, MP Rishad Bathiudeen, who is currently under remand custody over a different case, was named the fifth suspect of the case.
