COLOMBO – A third female domestic aide said to have been employed at opposition MP, and former minister, Rishad Bathuideen’s Colombo residence has accused his brother-in-law of sexual assault.
Police media spokesman, Senior Deputy Inspector General (SDIG) Ajith Rohana said statements have been recorded from seven women who had worked at the Bathuideen residence as domestic aides over the past several years.
The 29-year-old’s charge of sexual abuse against Bathuideen’s brother-in-law is the latest in a series of allegations that have been made in the wake of the death of a teenage domestic aide at the MP’s residence in July.
The teen, aged 16-years-and-eight-months, who was admitted to the National Hospital in Colombo with third-degree burns on July 3, succumbed to the injuries on July 15.
“From 2009, around 10 women have served in the house,” Rohana told reporters on Monday (2), noting that one of them had died of cancer and another had committed suicide.
Rohana said police have recorded statements from eight of the former workers, one of whom has complained of being sexually assaulted by the 44-year-old brother-in-law of the former minister.
Police arrested the MP’s wife, father-in-law, brother-in-law, and one other suspect last Friday (July 23) over various incidents that police said had come to light in the investigations into the 16-year-old’s death.
“We will submit the statements we have recorded from the former domestic aides to court and request the court to name the former minister’s brother-in-law a suspect of a separate sexual assault case,” Rohana said, adding that two cases were now being investigated by police, the investigation into the teenager’s death and any incidents of sexual assault n the house.
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