Madhuwanti Ratnayake, who was a 27-year-old nurse at the time in Sri Lanka, explained to us how the person who distorted her photos and released them on the internet was brought to justice and punished.
“I first came to know about this incident from a lower ranking person who was there while I was on duty. I took sick leave and went home as soon as I found out about it because I was not in a position to take it,” the cyber criminal posted his photos, which were distorted, badly edited and posted online. She described the ordeal Madhuwanti faced after her conversion.
“At that time, the Covid epidemic was intensifying. I was working in a corona ward. Even at the duty level, I was prepared to conduct disciplinary investigations. The family members knew that I was right. But my mother took this with great pain. My brother was not talking to me. My friends abandoned me. Some people who were close to me tried to take advantage of me, but I had a group of people around me to give me strength.”
“I bore all that strongly because I thought that somehow justice would be done for this. No matter what happened, I always believed that it should not go to the point of suicide, because the person who did this wanted to destroy me. I took it as a challenge. Accepted as is,” she said.
Pointing out that many women face such incidents nowadays, Madhuwanti has decided to seek justice in order to become an example and strength for them and seek recourse in the law.
“The law for such things in Sri Lanka is not very strong. In such cases, data has to be obtained from international websites. I had to face a lot of problems because of the difficulty in collecting data and the lack of strength in the Sri Lankan law.”
Suffering from cyber crime, she faced the shortcomings of the law and managed to get justice by punishing the criminal who oppressed her in a trial that lasted for about a year.
The Mahiyangana Magistrate’s Court sentenced the cyber criminal who improperly edited her photos to one and a half years of hard labor in the year 2022 and ordered Madhuwanti Ratnayake, who was affected by the incident, to pay compensation of eight lakhs.
Instead of giving up or bearing it, Madhuvanthi, who sought justice and won the battle, is currently abroad for her higher education.
“We are not the only country that is facing the issue of nudity and blackmailing. But with the culture in Sri Lanka, we have more influence from the society in this kind of thing. But I think there is a solution to everything. Either we solve it, or we leave it. We protect ourselves. Every girl should have the determination to face life with confidence.”
If you have to face such an incident, Madhuwanti asked to get help from someone who can consult at a professional level, “because otherwise, other effects may come. There were times when the same thing happened to me, but I avoided those things and went to the desired place.” is
Asking her never to try to kill herself or harm herself in such an event, she asked to act as an example based on her experiences and how she faced the event.
She mentioned that a person who does not want to complain to the police in their area can submit such complaints to the Women and Children’s Bureau, and it is also very important to complain to the computer crime section of the Colombo Criminal Investigation Division in the case of online harassment.
Pointing out that the law against criminals who oppress women through the internet should be strict, Madhuwanti further said that instead of giving serious punishments to such criminals, a program should be set up to rehabilitate them and create a proper mentality.
