• Victim tells police she was forced to take liquor before she was gang raped  

By Dileep Jayasekara   

Police began probe on a case where a 16- year- old girl in Thanamalwila had been raped by 22 schoolboys.   

Statements were recorded from some of the suspects and parents according to police.   

The victim has informed police that she was forced to take liquor before she was gang raped during preliminary investigations.   She stated that she had been in love with a schoolboy of the same school she was attending. She was taken to her lover’s house and gang- raped with several other schoolboys after forcing her to take liquor. They had blackmailed her by showing a video recording of the incident and raped her at times by the schoolboy with whom she had been in love and by 21 others of her school for more than a year.   

The victim had told police she was later taken to a shrub jungle on the banks of Kirindioya River and gang raped by seven schoolboys who video recorded it.  

However, the incident had been swept under the carpet by the Principal and the Disciplinary Committee of the school. It is believed that this was done to prevent any possible disrepute to the school.   

Police said the mother of the boy was a teacher while the father is reported to be a teaching instructor in the Thanamalwila Education Zone. Investigations revealed that the Principal had obtained letters from the parents and the students concerned to avoid legal action.