Minister Rajitha's son Eksath is forcibly keeping our schoolgoing daughter at home - parents complain

Minister Rajitha's son Eksath is forcibly keeping our schoolgoing daughter at home - parents complain

Eksath Senaratna a son of Minister of Health Rajitha Senaratna has forcibly abducted their

daughter and is keeping her as his wife and that though it is not possible to keep their daughter who is 17 years and 4 months in his custody, because of political powers the police had failed to do justice in this connection, parents of the girl said at a media briefing at Colombo Galadari Hotel yesterday.

This girl Dinithi Aloka Ranasinghe while studying in grade 11 in an international school had been abducted in this manner. Though the Minister does not deny that this information is a hoax, he had responded saying that this media confrontation has been conducted with the motive of slinging mud; while the Police Media Spokesman says that since the girl concerned is over 16 years of age, she is eligible to arrive at a decision on her own, by law.

The girl's father Mr. Gamini Ranasinghe says this at the media discussion. "Our daughter when coming home after school on February 24th, 2014 the second son of Minister Rajitha Senaratna, Eksath Senaratna had taken her away. After we got information about this we met the Minister personally and informed him. For quite sometime we had cordial relations with Rajitha's family as family friends. We made an appeal but did not get the child. Without handing our daughter to us she was stationed at some other place. Later after complaining to Kurunduwatta Police an inquiry was conducted. Accordingly the issue was directed to Madiwela Child Protection Authority. Subsequently on our wish the child was temporarily stationed at our punchi amma's house. Such a decision was taken because the girl was preparing to sit for her O/L examination. Our daughter started going to school from there. On April 6th, 2014 our daughter was once again taken away from home by this boy supposedly known as Eksath Senaratna. Our punchi amma lodged an entry about it to Piliyandala Police.

After abducting this way, on the complete knowledge of Rajitha Senaratna and his wife Pramitha Senaratna this boy called Eksath Senaratna kept her at their official residence. We continuously kept asking the Minister and his wife to release our daughter and let her proceed with her studies. But our pleas fell on deaf ears".

The girl's mother Damini Rodrigo had this to say. "We complained to Women's and Child Authority down Pagoda Road on October 12th, 2014. No justified inquiry was conducted over this. After that we complained to Police Headquarters on January 3rd, 2015. But there has been no response upto now. All these investigations are being kept underground and the child is being kept back forcibly even depriving us of the rights we have to see our child. On last World Children's Day we shouted out near the gate of the official residence and we were given the opportunity of just getting a glimpse of our daughter.

A child who is a minor is being kept is contrary to the law of the land. Our daughter was thus abducted twice. Our child is a girl who is clever at studies. As parents we have a big fear about this child who has been kidnapped. We now have suspicions whether our child is even among the living".

When questioned from the Minister of Health Dr. Rajitha Senaratna regarding this incident, what he had said was that his son's name has been mentioned in order to sling mud and even worse incidents of slinging mud could take place in future.

"Decent parents don't conduct media discussions and tell such things to the country. They could have spoken to me about an incident like this. They have not done that. I shall discuss with lawyers about this act of slinging mud and take necessary action". Police Media Spokesman, Assistant Superintendent of Police Mr. Ruwan Gunasekera expressed his ideas in this connection and said that the police have carried out proper investigations in this respect. He also mentioned that even at the time the Police Child and Women's Authority received a complaint, the girl's age happened to be 16 years and 11 months as revealed in inquiries conducted. Since a girl aged over 16 years is in a position to make a decision according to her own desires, the Police Spokesman explained that the police have carried out the relevant inquiries within the framework of the law.

In the meantime the media questioned the parents yesterday at Galadari Hotel as to why a news discussion is conducted over an issue such as this. When they were asked that is it not that instead of taking legal action a news discussion is being called for the sake of political requirements, the parents refuted it. When one media person questioned that he came there with the invitation of the media unit of the Jathika Nidahas Peramuna, what the girl's father said was that they had sent e-mails to everybody.