A 21-year-old moulavi from Eragama in the Ampara district has been remanded over the alleged sexual abuse of a 14-year-old girl, with a second 21-year-old man also in custody on charges of aiding the main suspect, Newswire reported on Sunday citing the Police.
Police said the moulavi, the principal suspect in the case, had fled the area but later surrendered to the Ampara Magistrate’s Court through a lawyer on May 20. He was thereafter remanded until June 3. The accomplice — also a 21-year-old Eragama resident — was first arrested in connection with the incident and produced before the Ampara Magistrate’s Court on May 9, initially remanded until May 20 and subsequently further remanded until June 3. Eragama Police is continuing investigations.
The Irakkamam branch of the All Ceylon Jamiyyathul Ulama (ACJU) on Monday evening disputed the Police characterisation of the suspect as a moulavi. In a statement, the ACJU said the man was not a certified moulavi, had not been educated at any Arabic school, and was not a member of the organisation or its Irakkamam branches. The clarification followed the Police statement issued earlier in the day naming the suspect a Moulavi resident in Eragama.
The case lands the same week Kandy Police arrested a 25-year-old monk at the Bahirawakanda temple over the alleged sexual abuse of his 15-year-old niece and as the country’s special High Court for Child Abuse in Anuradhapura last week sentenced a temple chief monk to 30 years’ rigorous imprisonment.
Sri Lanka’s National Child Protection Authority and women MPs’ caucus have flagged a sharp rise in disclosed clergy-linked child-abuse complaints across faiths this year. Government legislation to amend the Vihara and Devalagam Act and revive a clergy disciplinary body is currently focused on Buddhist orders; there is no equivalent statutory mechanism for disciplining Islamic clergy.
Sources: Moulavi arrested for the sexual abuse of a 14-year-old girl — Newswire.
