| Police probing the mystery of the two-and-a-half-year-old child who was abducted from the Kelaniya temple and later found, are investigating whether the elderly woman behind the incident had taken the child to be sold overseas.
By Friday, the woman, her daughter and granddaughters were in custody while police were trying to locate two of her other children.
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| Senuthi Nimantha: Why was she
abducted? |
Kelaniya Police OIC Arjuna Mahinkanda told the Sunday Times they were probing the motives behind the child being taken from Kelaniya to Marawila and being kept there for at least 48 hours before two youth in a neighbouring house had spotted the child and brought both her and the old woman to the station.
Police say one of the sons in law of the elderly woman live in Italy, but they haven’t found any evidence to point to a case of attempting to sell the child overseas. Police said they are, however, probing this line of investigation.
DIG Kelaniya division H.S. Dayananda said within half an hour of the child, Senuthi Nimantha, being reported missing they put up posters with the picture of the child to alert the public.
He said following this they got a call from a communication centre in Kelaniya informing them that a woman with a child had come to the centre and taken calls to Mt. Lavinia and Marawila. He said they also drew a sketch of the woman on the information they received.
“We were keeping a watch on the areas, however before we made a move two youth brought the woman along with the child to the Marawila police station,” he said.
Meanwhile police say they have recorded contradictory statements from inmates of the house in Marawila where the child was kept and neighbours. The inmates claim they had told the elderly woman to take the child to the Kelaniya police, while others say the woman lived on her own and was not mentally sound.
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| The elderly woman suspect at the Marawila police |
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