Lanka Buddhist monk receives six months jail for intimidating woman

Colombo: A radical Buddhist monk in Sri Lanka was on Thursday sentenced to six months rigourous imprisonment after he was found guilty in a case of harassing and intimidating the wife of a missing journalist. The Homagama court, in the Colombo suburb, had on May 24 found Galagodaatte Gnanasara guilty on two counts of criminal harassment and criminal intimidation of Sandya Eknaligoda, and fixed June 14 as the date to pronounce the quantum of punishment.

The magistrate on Thursday sentenced the monk to six months in prison with hard labour for both the offences, which would run concurrently.

The court also slapped a fine of 50,000 Sri Lankan rupees, which should be paid to the victim at once, but if he fails, then he will have to serve an additional jail term of three months, according to media reports.

Gnanasara had verbally abused Sandya, in the court in 2016. He had accused her of supporting the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), which led a three-decade-long armed campaign for a separate Tamil homeland. The LTTE was finally crushed by the Lankan military in 2009 with the death its supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran.