4 Tamil women arrested in Colombo

[TamilNet, Friday, 21 March 2008, 10:01 GMT]
Three Tamil women who arrived in Colombo from Vavuniyaa accompanying another woman to go to Kuwait were arrested by the Kotahena Police. They were later ordered remand by the Colombo Magistrate. They are being detained in Welikada prison. They have been identified as Kumariah Mallika, 35, of Thonikal, Thushanthini Wijekumar, 23, of Manipuram, Ganeshan Indrani, 32, and Sivasubramaniam Sthreethevi, 25, of Anuradhapura, media sources said.

Police said they were taken into custody from a lodge located along Old Moor Street in Colombo on March 9, according to a complaint handed over to Mr.P.Radhakrishnan, Colombo district parliamentarian of the Western Peoples' Front and a Deputy Minister in the UPFA government

Kotahena Police officials told Mr.Radhakrishnan that the women were apprehended on receipt of information that they had arrived in Colombo from Vavuniyaa accompanied by a job agent Kumariah Mallika.

Relatives of these women had complained to Mr.Radhakrishnan that the arrested women had been subjected to harassment by police even after they produced their passports and national identity cards.