Anuradhapura Chief Magistrate Siyapath Sasidu Wickramaratne on Tuesday declined to issue a further remand order against Atamasthanadhipathi Venerable Pallegama Hemarathana Thera and refixed the case for May 15, citing the absence of paperwork from the Colombo Chief Magistrate’s Court.
Prison officials told the court that the monk — the highest-ranking Buddhist authority at Anuradhapura’s eight sacred sites — had been remanded until Tuesday under an order from Magistrate No. 08 of the Colombo Chief Magistrate’s Court and that he was to be produced before the Anuradhapura bench. However, the written order confirming the remand and the production directive had not reached the Anuradhapura court, and Hemarathana Thera was not physically produced before it.
The Magistrate said that without the documentation, and with the suspect absent, there was no legal authority to extend the remand. Any further remand order would have to be issued by the Colombo Magistrate who had examined the suspect originally, the bench ruled.
Welikada Remand Prison authorities, through Anuradhapura Prison officials, submitted a medical report stating Hemarathana Thera was not fit to travel long distances and required several specialist examinations.
President’s Counsel Kalinga Indrathissa, appearing for the monk, denied the allegation that his client had sexually abused a minor and complained that doctors, lawyers, professionals and the wider public had already conducted “a trial on social media.” The Officer-in-Charge of Nittambuwa Police, Chief Inspector Anura Gunawardena, told court that statements from several additional witnesses still needed to be recorded.
The court ordered police to file a progress report at the next hearing.
The case is the most high-profile monastic prosecution in Sri Lanka this year. It comes as courts simultaneously handle proceedings against 23 Buddhist monks arrested over drug smuggling from Thailand, reflecting broader judicial scrutiny of monastics.
