Colombo additional magistrate remands 16 suspects allegedly involved in torturing children.
The Western Province Ministry of Education has taken steps to interdict the principal of Gungamuwa Junior College in Millaniaya Horana, who was remanded yesterday (08) on charges of cruelty to children based on an incident of torturing a group of Year 5 children by the police.
The Minister of Education told Parliament yesterday that the Ministry of Education of the Western Province and the Ministry of Education of the Central Government have started an investigation regarding her conduct and the incident at that school.
The principal, the deputy principal, a police inspector, a police sergeant and a police constable, who were accused of cruelty to children, were summoned to the National Child Protection Authority yesterday (8) and after recording their statements for 05 hours, they were produced before the Colombo Chief Magistrate’s Court.
Altogether 16 suspects were remanded by the Colombo Additional Magistrate along with the principal of Gungamuwa Junior College, the police inspector, and the police sergeant. The deputy principal of the school and the police driver have been released on bail.
Meanwhile, the Police Media Spokesperson said that an Assistant Superintendent of Police in charge of the Panadura division is conducting an investigation into the involvement of the Police in the incident.
After school teachers punished some grade five students at Horana Millaniya Primary School. The students allegedly stole money from a school teacher’s bag. The same teachers handed them over to the police.
The parents of the students alleged that the children were then taken away in a police jeep. They were beaten, given electric shocks inside the vehicle, tortured and sent back to school.
Two children who were tortured told the media that police officers took them in a jeep and threatened them with electric shocks. They forced them to reveal the truth. They then sent them back to school.
