Colombo day care matron remanded in vain ... for having beaten district judge's child!

Colombo day care matron remanded in vain ...

for having beaten district judge's child!

An incident was reported yesterday of an instance of a district court judge having sought legal assistance on behalf of his child saying that the matron and her assistant had beaten, physically punished and harassed his child at the temporary day care centre and thus going to the extent of directing them to remand and pursuant to which the two of them were allowed bail by court under the condition that it was meaningless.

Though the judge concerned had sought assistance of the law, saying that the said matron and

assistant had complained that they had harassed the child, according to what was exposed in court was that there had been a misunderstanding with the wife of the judge, the latter of whom is a legal director of the municipality.

Chief magistrate, Colombo, Mr. Ranga Dissanayaka, Colombo who inquired into the case came to the conclusion that a punishment is meted out to constrain a child for the latter's welfare and not to treat the child inhumanly; that happens in a motivated instance and that has not happened in this particular case. Under such conditions Colombo chief magistrate Mr. Ranga Dissanayaka who inquired into the case then released the matron and her assistance of the day care centre in remand yesterday (14) presumed to have beaten a child who was a minor. It was matron Ranjani Fernando and Shyamali Chandralatha of the day care centre which incidentally is being governed by the Colombo municipality who faced these circumstances.

They were remanded in that manner last 11th by court on a complaint lodged by the child's father, a district judge at Cinnamon Gardens police station on the complaint that a 10 year old child was treated in a brutal manner. Attorney-at-Law Mr. Anton Senanayaka who appeared on behalf of the suspects forwarded a motion yesterday (14) in court saying: "These children have been retained in a small room. There is not much facilities there. The complaint has been made saying that the child of the legal director of the Colombo municipality who had been beaten in this instance. We will not disturb proceedings of investigations. Children of parents employed in esteemed professions are maintained here under my clients. Today all of them have been put into inconvenience without a place to keep the children. Likewise the two children of my clients too have suffered because of this issue".

Court: "When inquiring into this incident, it is specially observed that information has been found pertaining to a long-standing family dispute. It has been revealed even in Battaramulla Child Magistrate Court that the mother of this child had assaulted the latter. The child's mother on the other hand says that she is not aware of the incident where her child was beaten up on May 3rd, 2018 and that she did not know until the father had come and complained to police in the weekend. What is apparent in such circumstances is that there had been conflicts among the child, the father and the mother for a long period. It is also understood that the father has had a necessity to act against the mother. It is also seen that the mother entertained a strong necessity to retain this child at a day care centre. The father has had the necessity to remove the child from there. It then appears that it is mentioned in the complaint that the problem of both mother and father had cut across the two suspects and ended as they had subjected the child to brutality.

If any punishment is to be administered to any child, it would be towards the child's welfare. Referring to 1995 No. 22 amendment clause 308 (a), subjecting children to brutality should be found to have been carried out on purpose, as stated therein. On this occasion, whether the suspects have beaten the children concerned on their legs was  done on purpose is a matter of conjecture. Since a case already is being heard in Battaramulla Child Magistrate Court to the effect that the mother has assaulted the children, the suspects would be released having taken all this into consideration". As such, the court which bailed out the suspects, the case under reference was postponed until next 18th.