NCPA to seek AG's advice

by Jayampathy JAYASINGHE

The National Child Protection Authority (NCPA) officers on a tip off arrested a man who kept a 14-year-old girl in solitary confinement in a home in the Chilaw area and sexually abused her for three months while the police were on the lookout for the missing girl. The suspect was arrested and produced before the Kurunegala Magistrate who ordered Rs. 100,000 surety bail and Rs. 7,500 cash bail. The man who handed over the girl to the suspect was also arrested by NCPA officers.

Meanwhile the victim child was handed over to her mother on a court order, NCPA sources told the Sunday Observer.

According to the NCPA the girl from Katuneriya had befriended an elderly man who later abducted her and handed over her to a small time businessman in the Chilaw area who forcibly kept her at his home. Prior to the abduction, the girl had been living with her mother at her home in Katuneriya.

NCPA officials said that they had come to know of the girl's disappearance following a complaint lodged by her mother at the NCPA two months later. Although the mother had complained to the Marawila police about her missing daughter, the police had failed to trace the missing girl. On a tip off, received by the OIC, NCPA, Chief Inspector Wijesena sent a team of officers to Chilaw and traced the missing girl in a house situated in a large coconut estate in Madurankuliya. The suspect age 26 who used to supply building materials to customers had lived with the girl in the house posing off as husband and wife to deceive people in the neighbourhood. The Judicial Medical Officer (JMO) who examined the girl had stated in his report that the underaged girl had been raped by the suspect.

OIC NCPA Chief Inspector Wijesena said that they would consult the Attorney General following the JMO's report regarding rape of an underage girl.