Mother and her partner arrested for assaulting two small children with sticks

Yesterday (20), the Keppetipola Police arrested the mother of two young children and a man alleged to be her associate, on charges of cruelly assaulting and torturing the children with sticks inside a house in the Ambewela, Warwickwatta area. The arrested individuals are the 31-year-old woman and a 35-year-old father of three.

The victims of this inhumane attack are an eight-year-old girl and a two-and-a-half-year-old child. Police confirm that both children, who sustained serious injuries from the assault, have been admitted to the Badulla Teaching Hospital for further treatment.

According to police investigations, these two children and their mother previously lived with their 38-year-old legal father in a house located in the lower part of Diyaraba Estate, Mirahawatta. The arrested suspect is a close friend of the children's legal father, and both had worked together for some time at the Keppetipola Economic Centre. Information has also been revealed that the suspect attended the younger child's birthday party held at Diyaraba Estate on October 10th last year.

Approximately a month after that party, in November last year, the suspect took his friend's wife and her two children to his house in Ambewela and had them reside there. Police investigations have revealed that during that period, the mother and the said individual jointly assaulted and severely abused these children with sticks on several occasions.

However, the children's legal father later came and took them back to the Mirahawatta house, placing them under the care of their grandmother, and also took steps to file a complaint with the police regarding this family dispute. It is reported that the legal wife of the arrested suspect is currently working abroad, and his three sons, aged 8, 12, and 15, are under the care of his mother-in-law.

Further investigations into this incident are being conducted under the instructions of Deputy Inspector General of Police for Badulla Division, Laksiri Wijesena, Senior Superintendent of Police for Bandarawela, A.A.R.C. Amarasinghe, and Assistant Superintendent of Police I, Udayakumara. Accordingly, a team of officers including Keppetipola Police Station OIC Inspector J.M. Thusitha Kumara, Sub-Inspector Abeysinghe, and Woman Police Sergeant (5498) Kalyani, are leading the relevant investigations.