News
Bus driver and conductor arrested for alleged sexual abuse of schoolgirl
A bus driver and a conductor have been arrested over the alleged sexual abuse of a 15-year-old schoolgirl in Nuwara Eliya. The conductor was reportedly an accomplice to the crime as he had prevented the girl from alighting from the bus in Pussellawa.
According to police, on Thursday, the student’s father had asked her to get into a bus heading to Kurunegala and instructed her to get off at Pussellawa. However, a driver of a bus heading from Nuwara Eliya and who was familiar with the route the girl usually took had asked her to get into his bus assuring her that she could get off at Pussellawa.
When the bus reached Pussellawa, however, the conducter had not allowed her to alight from the bus, police quoted her as saying.
The bus had proceeded to Kandy and back to Nuawara Eliya, all the while with the girl in it. Once the bus returned to Nuwara Eliya, the conductor claims he had returned home.
The girl was abused after the bus was parked in Nuwara Elia town, police said. That night when the girl’s mother called the boarding where the daughter was staying she was informed that she had not returned. A complaint was lodged and by next evening the suspects had been arrested.
The driver was identified as Narankotuwegedara Ratnaweera (33) alias Kawuda, a father of three while the conductor was Vishwanathan Thirubakaran (36).
They were produced yesterday before the Nuwara Eliya Acting Magistrate Vijaya Wickrema and remanded until September 14.