Colombo: The Indian High Commission in Colombo, along with the Sri Lanka Red Cross Society, has launched a joint investigation into a complaint put forward by a war-displaced widow against a Red Cross official for “soliciting sexual favours” in return for houses in an Indian government-funded housing project. An angry South Block took the matter “extremely seriously” with Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar immediately asking the High Commission for a joint probe with the SLRCS, as soon as the news reached Indian capital New Delhi.
Sources said Indian High Commissioner Y K Sinha quickly approached the Sri Lankan foreign ministry to ensure that officials under probe in Sri Lanka, do not leave the country until the investigations are over. “We don’t want the accused officials to escape, so the Sri Lankan foreign ministry and their immigration authorities have been informed,” an Indian official said. Another Indian diplomat said that while there was “no time-frame”, the probe will be conducted “expeditiously and thoroughly”. “India will not condone any such activity by any of the implementing partners of this project. The Government of India - through its High Commission in Colombo and the consulate in Jaffna - is conducting a joint probe along with the Sri Lankan Red Cross officials,” an Indian High Commission spokesperson
This is reportedly the first time such a complaint had come to India’s notice, and was taken seriously since PM Modi had handed over houses to some of the war widows during his visit to Jaffna in March this year. These women are called “war widows” as their husbands were either declared killed or went missing during Sri Lanka’s war with the LTTE, which ended in 2009.
SLRCS Kilinochchi branch secretary Thampu Sethupathy claimed that he had received more than 30 written and verbal complaints regarding demands for sexual favours. “For the last two months we have been getting this kind of complaint from the public, particularly women. Initially, we did not consider this as a serious issue until we received some of the complaints which were very sensitive, with a similar pattern. It was thereafter that we brought this to the attention of the head office,” he said.
