Women have taken to the streets in eight districts to demand the proper enforcement of the law against the chief incumbent of Atamasthana over sexual abuse of a minor girl.
Agitations took place on 27 May in Batticaloa and Jaffna, where participants handed over a petition to the Human Rights Commission, which asked that sex offenders be not protected over their social, political or religious status.
At the protest in Batticaloa, a woman stressed the accused Pallegama Hemarathana Thera should be given a punishment that could be a lesson to any clergy or laity against any wrongdoing in the future.
The women’s collective in the northeast held a demonstration at Kandasamy Kovil in Nallur, demanding the law takes its proper course against the accused presently out in bail.
One protestor, a woman, criticised lawyer Mahesh Kotuwella, who appears for the accused, for having made light of the accusation, when he said it was normal for girls aged from 10 to 15 in Anuradhapura to undergo such experiences.
Everyone questions if wrongdoers are being protected over their religious affinities, she said.
The monk was enlarged on two sureties of Rs. five million each and a cash bail of Rs. 100,000 by Anuradhapura chief magistrate Siyapath Sasindu Wickramaratne.
The magistrate also issued a foreign travel ban against the accused and warned him against intimidating witnesses in the case.
