News
Ex-Maldivian minister arrested over rape of underage Lankan girl
By Norman Palihawadane
A former Maldivian Minister is among 32 suspects arrested over the exploitation and rape of an underage Sri Lankan teen.
Police Spokesman DIG Ajith Rohana said that the ex-Maldivian Minister had reached the girl via the Internet. He said that a hotel manager had also been arrested in connection with the incident.
The mother of the child, the Deputy Chairman of the Mihintale Pradeshiya Sabha and a captain of a ship are among the other suspects arrested over the sex scam.
The suspects now in custody also include the main accused.
A three-wheel driver, a car driver and the suspect involved in designing the website used to sell the child for sex, were also arrested earlier.
The 15-year-old girl had been sold for sex via the internet to multiple customers for sums ranging from Rs. 10,000, to Rs. 30,000 over a period of three months. She had been first marketed as a virgin.
The Police Spokesman said that another 12 suspects had also been identified and are to be arrested.
Preliminary investigations had revealed that the suspect had rented an apartment in Mount Lavinia to conduct his operations.
The suspect, who is reported to have sold the girl to several people on a daily basis, is said to have bought the girl from her mother, who is a resident of Delgoda.
Later in the evening four of the suspects including the Maldives’ former state minister of finance Mohamed Ashmalee (38) were produced before Colombo Additional Magistrate Lochani Abeywickrama and were ordered to be remanded till July 16. Others were a cashier of a Colombo-based hotel Dissanayake Mudiyanselage Malinga, owner of the Lankaads.com Ranasinghe Arachchige Duminda Sampath Perera of Panadura and Finance Manager of the website Makewelagedara Dhanuka Kaushalya of Bandaragama.
The Cabinet of Ministers has approved the proposal presented by the Minister of Transport, Highways, and Urban Development to award the contract for printing and supplying vehicle number plates for the Department of Motor Traffic for a period of five (5) years to M/s South Asian Technologies based on the recommendations of the High-Level Standing Procurement Committee and the Procurement Appeal Board.
The National Lotteries board has been established subject to the Finance Act No. 11 of 1963. Having identified the requirement of amending that act which was imposed around 62 years to cater the current requirements of the lottery market, the Cabinet of Mnisters at their meeting held on 14.02.2017 granted approval to draft a new bill for the purpose.
Accordingly, the National Lotteries Board has recognized further amendments to be performed to the fundamental draft bill prepared by the Legal Draftsmen.
Therefore, the Cabinet of Ministers granted approval for the
resolution furnished by the President in his office as the Minister of Finance, Planning and Economic Development to direct the Legal Draftsmen to finalize the formulation of the draft bill for the National Lotteries Board as soon as possible including the proposed new amendments as well.
The Werahara office of the Department of Motor Traffic performs issuance of temporary driving licenses in this country based on the driving licenses issued overseas, and measures have been initiated to render the service from a service window of the Department of Motor Traffic established at the Bandaranayake International Airport from 03.08.2025.
The fees charged for issuing temporary driving licenses have been published in Motor Vehicles (Driving License Levy) Regulations No. 3 of 2022 prepared under the provisions of the Motor Traffic (Authority 203) Act.
But, as the fee of Rupees 2,000/- charged for the service is not sufficient, the requirement of amending the regulations has been recognized.
The regulations for introducing the revised fees have been published in the government extraordinary gazette
notification No. 2463/04 dated 17.11.2025. Therefore, the Cabinet of Ministers granted approval to the resolution furnished by the Minister of Transport, Highways and Urban Development to
submit the regulations to the Parliament for its concurrence.
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