By AJA Abeynayaka
Colombo Chief Magistrate Nandana Amarasinghe on Thursday further remanded, until 13 December, four persons involved in the Omani human trafficking case.Out of them, two were two associates of Mohommad Rishmi, the main suspect in the case and had operated foreign employment agencies. Amarasinghe also further remanded two others who had introduced women to these agencies.
The Chief Magistrate also cancelled the bail of Asha Dissanayaka, who was the translator attached to a foreign employment agency and remanded her till 13 December as well. She had been granted bail on 21 November.
Amarasinghe asked the CID and the Department of Prisons to present Mohommad Rishmi before his court. Rishmi is currently detained at the Negombo Prison and the case against him is being heard at the Negombo Magistrate’s Courts.
Lawyers appearing for the victims told the court that the wife of Balakrishnan, a foreign employment agency owner who is also the main associate of Rishmi, had taken passports from 16 women who returned from Oman and demanded Rs. 500,000 each for returning them.