Pallegama Hemarathana is accused of abusing an 11-year-old girl in a temple.
By Al Jazeera Staff and AFP
A prominent Buddhist monk has been arrested in Sri Lanka for allegedly sexually abusing an 11-year-old girl, in the highest-profile case involving a local religious leader.
Authorities took 71-year-old Pallegama Hemarathana into custody on Saturday from a private hospital in the capital, Colombo, where he had checked in for treatment as a criminal probe against him progressed.
Hemarathana is accused of committing the abuse in 2022 in a highly venerated temple in Anuradhapura.
Authorities said the victim’s mother has also been arrested for aiding and abetting the monk.
“We will be guided by the magistrate on further action,” a police statement said Saturday.
Hemarathana, who had been subject to a foreign travel ban, was detained on the orders of the chief magistrate in Anuradhapura, after child protection authorities cited complaints of delays in his arrest, reported Sri Lanka’s Daily News. It said the court instructed police to arrest Hemarathana and bring him before the court “without delay”.
In addition to his position in Colombo, the monk is the chief of eight highly venerated temples that are on a key Buddhist pilgrimage route. He is also the chief custodian of a tree believed to have been grown from a sapling of the Bodhi tree in India that sheltered the Buddha when he attained enlightenment more than 2,500 years ago.
