A deputy principal accused of assaulting a 12-year-old Grade 7 pupil with a broom handle has surrendered to police in the Welimada Education Zone after several days in hiding, and has been released on personal bail of Rs. 200,000.
She gave herself up to the Ambagasdowa Police on Saturday, 31 October, accompanied by her husband, and was produced before the Welimada Magistrate’s Court, where Acting Magistrate S.B. Samarakoon granted bail, the Daily Mirror reported at 12:34 p.m. Colombo time on Sunday.
What police say happened
The incident is dated to 23 October. The deputy principal entered a Grade 7 classroom during the third period because the regular teacher was absent, and questioned the class about leaves found on the classroom floor.
When two students stood up, she allegedly took a broom kept near the classroom door and struck them with its handle. Police say she hit the 12-year-old girl with the broom handle, poked her body with wooden sticks and slapped her on the ear.
The girl told her mother and grandfather. She was first treated at a local Ayurvedic centre and was later admitted to Welimada Base Hospital after developing pain in her hand. She has since been discharged.
The case came to light through the hospital, not the school
The route by which this reached the police is worth noting. The allegation did not surface through the school or the education zone. It came to light when hospital police officers took a statement from the girl and passed it to the Ambagasdowa Police — the standard mechanism by which injuries presenting at a state hospital are referred for investigation.
Police said the deputy principal had been avoiding them for several days. She did not report to school after the incident, obtained treatment at a private hospital claiming high blood pressure, and stayed at a house in the Bandarawela area while officers were looking for her.
A second such case in two weeks
This is the second corporal-punishment prosecution involving a senior school official that this site has reported in a fortnight. On 18 October a principal in Bandaragama was accused of assaulting a Grade 7 student.
These are separate cases — different schools, different districts, different accused and different dates — and should not be read as developments in one story. The similarity is in the pattern: corporal punishment is prohibited in Sri Lankan schools, and both cases reached court only after a child was injured badly enough to need treatment.
Not reported
The filing does not name the school, the accused or the child, and does not say what charges were framed or when the case will next be called. It does not state whether the second student said to have been struck was injured or has made a complaint, or whether the education authorities have interdicted or transferred the deputy principal pending the case. It does not explain why her husband accompanied her to the surrender, or whether he faces any allegation. No comment from the school, the Welimada Education Zone or the Ministry of Education appears in the report.
Single verified source. This report was carried by the Daily Mirror, a verified newsroom, and was filed by its Ella correspondent. A search of other verified outlets found no independent account of Saturday’s surrender at the time of writing; the results returned instead related to the separate Bandaragama case and to older prosecutions.
