Four members of the same family, including two women, have been arrested over the alleged assault of a 16-year-old boy accused of theft in Galle, police said, after a video of the attack circulated widely on Facebook.
The teenager, from Dandeniyakanda in Beralapanathara, had been arrested in connection with a property theft complaint reported at Galle Police, Newswire reported. He was produced before the Galle Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday (June 3) and is being treated at Karapitiya Teaching Hospital under prison custody.
The boy’s mother lodged a separate complaint alleging that her son had been subjected to an inhuman assault by the same party that had lodged the theft complaint. Investigators relied on the viral video footage during the probe.
Those arrested are the original complainant, a 40-year-old woman, her 47-year-old husband, their 19-year-old son and 17-year-old daughter — all residents of Milidduwa in Galle. The four suspects were due to be produced before the Galle Magistrate’s Court for an initial remand hearing.
Police said further investigations are continuing into both the alleged theft and the assault on the teenage suspect.
The arrests follow a similar viral-video case in Vavuniya in which seven students were remanded over an assault filmed and shared online — part of a wider pattern of social-media circulation triggering rapid police action and arrests in cases that might otherwise have gone unreported.
