Senior Sri Lankan monk arrested for alleged child sex crimes

A prominent Buddhist monk, Pallegama Hemarathana, was arrested in Colombo for allegedly sexually abusing an 11-year-old girl in 2022 at a revered temple in Anuradhapura. The victim's mother has also been arrested for aiding him. Hemarathana, 71, was under a foreign travel ban and was detained on the orders of the chief magistrate in Anuradhapura after complaints about delays in his arrest.