SRI LANKA: Failure of police officers to take action on alleged abduction case 

Dear friends,

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received reliable information that a 16-year-old school girl has been duped into leaving home by one of her school teachers in Thiruwanaganga-watte, Kotapola, Sri Lanka on 6 May 2006.  Despite repeated appeals by S.A. Letchimi, the girl’s mother to the teacher concerned and having made a report to the Deniyaya Police, the girl is still missing and the police have not taken any action to locate her.

According to the victim’s mother Ms. Anna Letchimi, on 6 May 2006, a female teacher attached to the Morawaka Junior School named Ms. Chandralatha Senanayake had duped her 16-year old daughter K Vijayakumari into leaving her home and – without the parents’ consent – taken her away.

Thereafter, Ms. Letchimi and her husband repeatedly inquired from Ms. Senanayake about their daughter’s whereabouts but the only reply they got was that their daughter was in good health and would be returned to them within a few days. However, when the child did not come back, the parents repeatedly pleaded with Ms. Senanayake for the return of their daughter.  Ms. Senanayake then told the parents that she had sent Vijayakumari to her sister’s house and she insisted the child was very happy there.

With much difficulty, Ms. Letchimi managed to get the address of the purported whereabouts of her daughter from Ms. Senanayake.  Thereafter, she and her husband visited the place, but when they got there, they were not allowed in.  Instead, they were given a telephone number at which they could contact their daughter.  However, when they called that number they were told Vijayakumari was not there. The parents were getting desperate in their search for their 16-year-old daughter and Ms. Senanayake began evading them. Finally in a bid to get rid of them, she told them that their daughter had eloped with a boy.

As the parents had not received any information about their daughter by July 22, they lodged a complaint against Ms. Senanayake at the Deniyaya police station. The police requested them to return to the station for an inquiry into the complaint. Thus on July 27, they visited the station again but Ms. Senanayake was not present. The police simply kept them waiting for about 2 hours and then told them to leave. No inquiry was conducted.

Again on August 2, they received a police message to visit the Deniyaya police station. But when they arrived, they were informed that Ms. Senanayake had already left, leaving behind an address. The Address was: Prophiston Estate, Govinna, Horana.  The police simply gave Ms. Letchimi the address and told her to find her daughter herself. But this was the same address given by Ms. Senanayake as her sister’s house and where Vijayakumari’s parents had already met with a dead end.

The parents of Vijayakumari are desperate for information of their daughter’s whereabouts and fear for her safety and well-being. They thus urge the relevant authorities including the National Child Protection Authority (NCPA), the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka and other organisations working towards the well being of children to find their daughter who has been missing now for 3 months. They also urge the authorities to take severe disciplinary and legal action against all those who are implicated in the abduction and cover up of this heinous crime.

SUGGESTED ACTION:
Please write to the relevant authorities listed below and urge them to ensure the safe return of this 16-year-old school girl to her legal parents.  The teacher responsible for her disappearance should be investigated by the relevant authorities and charged with an abduction and the police officers of the Deniyaya Police Station should be investigated and face disciplinary proceedings for their lack of action in this case.

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