Colombo Magistrate’s Court has rejected the bail applications filed by four suspects including the wife of MP Rishad Bathiudeen.

The order was issued when the case regarding the death of a teenage domestic worker serving the Bathiudeen household was taken up today (August 09).

The Magistrate had further remanded the suspects until August 23.

On July 15, a 16-year-old girl, who was serving as domestic help at the Bathiudeen residence, succumbed to severe burn injuries while receiving treatment at the Colombo National Hospital. She had been under medical care for 12 days since her admission to the hospital on July 03.

The girl, who was residing in the Dayagama area, had been 15 years of age when she was brought to the parliamentarian’s residence at Bauddhaloka Mawatha for domestic work last October.

The judicial medical officer who conducted the post-mortem on the girl’s death concluded that she had been sexually exploited.

Thereby, the former minister’s wife, father-in-law, and the middleman in question were taken into custody on July 23 based on the testimonies recorded from nearly 20 individuals, autopsy results, and the evidence gathered by the investigating officers which pointed to the fact that the deceased girl was subjected to abuse.

In addition, the 44-year-old brother-in-law of MP Bathiudeen was also taken into custody and produced before the Judicial Medical Officer for allegedly sexually abusing a young woman who worked as a domestic helper at the lawmaker’s official residence from 2015 to 2019.

Her remains were exhumed on July 30 for a second postmortem by a court-appointed specialist medical team.