The Kompannavidiya Police reported to the Fort Magistrate’s Court that the elderly woman who was recently arrested by the Police while begging in the company of three children near a supermarket at Hyde Park Corner earned more than Rs. 20,000 per hour. Charges have been filed against the suspect woman for deploying underaged children for begging.
The Magistrate ordered the minor child, who is around two years old, to be placed in an orphanage in Moratuwa. Earlier Court ordered that the other two children who are of school-going age to be placed under probation care.
The Magistrate made this order after perusing the school and grama niladhari reports related to the two children which were submitted by the Police following an order by the Courts during the previous hearing.
The two children aged eight and nine whose identity can be confirmed were ordered to be placed in a child care centre and the Magistrate also ordered that a certificate of presumed age of the minor child be filed with the Court and that the child be provided with necessary vaccinations and health facilities.
The Police told the Court that according to the observations made by the Police team during a period of one hour, they had seeing the children going to the cars of customers coming out of the shopping mall and begging for money, and the money collected in this way within an hour was Rs. 20,700, which the Police had seized.
The Police informed the Court that the suspect woman does not provide specific information about the children and changes the information from time to time. One time she had said that she is taking care of her cousin’s children.
The Police informed the Court that she has been coming to the relevant place with the children for begging for a long period of time and there was also a case against her previously for using a four-year-old child for begging.