SL man sentenced for extorting French woman

6 August 2013 04:13 pm Views - 5357

A Sri Lankan man was yesterday sentenced to six-months imprisonment suspended for five years by a Colombo Court, after pleading guilty to extorting Rs.3000 from a French woman who arrived on a tourist visa.  

While ordering the accused to be paid a fine of Rs.1500 in addition to the suspended imprisonment, the Colombo Fort Magistrate Thilina Gamage observed that such persons create a bad image of Sri Lanka.   

The accused Tuwan Saleem of Kollupitiya was arrested by Police Tourist Division upon a complaint received from the French national Ms. Adeline Pinon of France.

In her complaint to the Police Tourist Division, Ms. Pinon said she arrived in Sri Lanka on July 20 with her friend Nathalie Lesieur, and as they were expecting to leave for India, they had visited the Visa section of the Indian High Commission to apply for a visa.

The complainant said they came outside in search of internet facilities to fill the applications, and a person who on the pretext of helping them to finalise the visa applications, took all the documents and the passport into his possession and extorted a sum of Rs.3000.

The Police Tourist Division who conducted investigations into the incident arrested the accused and produced him before Court.(Lakmal Sooriyagoda)