SC orders compensation to woman raped at checkpoint

[TamilNet, Thursday, 24 January 2002, 19:33 GMT]
The Supreme Court Thursday directed the State to pay one hundred and fifty thousand rupees as compensation to a Tamil woman who was raped by three soldiers of the Sri Lanka army at a checkpoint in Maradane, near downtown Colombo on 24 June last year in a fundamental rights application filed by her. Tamil political parties launched protests in the north and east against her rape and the rape and torture of two young mothers in Police custody in Mannar and the general harassment of Tamil women at Sri Lankan security forces checkpoints. The protests culminated in a general one-day shutdown in the SLA held parts of the north and east.

The woman sought the SC in her FR application to determine that her fundamental rights guaranteed under Article 11 and 13 (1) of the Constitution had been violated by three soldiers of the Sri Lanka Army allegedly commit ting rape on her on 24 June last year at a checkpoint near Maradane Technical College junction in Colombo city.

The FR application came up for hearing before a three member Supreme Court bench comprised Justices Mark Fernando, C.V. Vigneswaran and Ameer Ismail Thursday

After inquiry the SC held that the fundamental rights of the petitioner woman had been violated.

The FR application was filed by the victim on 27 July last year. She stated in her application on the day of incident she was taken to the said checkpoint of the army under the pretext of an inquiry where three soldiers had raped her.

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