500 for a couple for film hall box at Kuliyapitiya on Poya Day

500 for a couple for film hall box at Kuliyapitiya on Poya Day!

Manager apprehended!

Though cinema halls are normally closed on Poya Days, a cinema hall situated close to a popular

school in Kuliyapitiya was open only for a few people last Poya Day. The audience on that day for that session were school children aged between 17 -22 and a few couples who had left school. The cinema hall manager and an employee who thought of making use of the vacant cinema hall on this day which usually is closed had admitted these couples after taking money from them on the basis of leaving enough room for the lovers who were minors to indulge in sexual activities as and when they wanted.They had charged a sum of Rs. 500 from each couple and were permitted to sit wherever they wished to in the box-seats in the balcony according to this money they had paid.

Parents of a certain girl in Kuliyapitiya who went in search of their daughter trying to find where she had ventured got information that she had entered the cinema hall with a boy. It was because of that the parents came streaming into the cinema hall supposed to be desolate on Poya Day. The manager turned them away; but as the parents had some suspicion, they had taken steps to complain about it to the police. It was after that that Kuliyapitiya Police came and checked the said cinema hall. When they arrived at the hall, several couples were found murmering here and there and the police who went near them started questioning them and they started replying in embarassment, and adjusting their clothing, in fear. 

What they said was that this cinema hall was kept open for sometime in the past on holidays in this manner and they had used this location as a lodging-place by paying Rs. 500. A number of romantic couples from several areas including Munamaldeniya, Naththandiya, Wewagama, Assedduma, Wadumunnegedera, Bogahapitiya and neighbouring areas were subjected to interrogation by the police. The previously mentioned daughter who was being searched by the parents too was there with her lover. She too was handed over to her parents and all of those there were sent away after warning them.  

The police then took into custody the manager and the employer concerned who pleaded guilty for having provided facilities for sexual activity which was against the law. Kasuja Wijenaika and Ruwishan Kaushalya the two employees of the cinema hall were produced before courts yesterday and they pleaded guilty to the offence.

Magistrate Mr. Bandula Gooneratna postponed the next hearing till March 30th to give a verdict on punishment.