> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.jaffnamonitor.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Out on Bail Before Doctor’s Alleged Rape, Freed Again Afterward, Former Soldier Is Back in Custody - URL: https://www.jaffnamonitor.com/featured/out-on-bail-before-doctors-alleged-rape-freed-again-afterward-former-soldier-is-back-in-custody/ - Published: 2026-11-09T12:42:14.000Z - Updated: 2026-11-09T15:12:12.000Z - Author: Our Reporter - Tags: November 2026 **ANURADHAPURA, Sri Lanka –** A former soldier on trial for raping a doctor inside her official quarters at Anuradhapura Teaching Hospital has been arrested again after a security camera recorded him climbing into a house in Galnewa through a bathroom window, police said. Police have asked the court to revoke his bail. K.B. Madhuranga Ratnayake, 35, known locally as "Bunty," was taken into custody by Galnewa police on the night of Nov. 6\. Police said the footage showed him entering through the window, going through clothes inside the house and walking out the front door. He is accused of unlawful entry and indecent conduct. A magistrate ordered him held in remand custody until Nov. 20. Police told the court that the new conduct, together with the gravity of the rape charges he faces in the High Court, was reason to cancel his bail. The arrest is the second time in 20 months that Ratnayake has been accused of a serious crime soon after leaving custody. When the doctor was attacked in March 2025, he had been out on bail in a separate case for no more than a day, police said at the time. The police, the Attorney General's Department and the courts have not said what assessment of risk was made before he was released in the rape case, or whether anyone was assigned to monitor him afterward. On the evening of March 10, 2025, a 32-year-old doctor in specialist training was walking back from duty to her quarters, in a building opposite the hospital set aside for specialist medical officers. According to the police account given in court, a man held a knife to her, gagged her, and forced her to unlock the door. Inside, he tied her hands, blindfolded her and sexually assaulted her before leaving with her mobile phone. Doctors at the hospital walked out the next day, and the Government Medical Officers' Association called a nationwide token strike. Ananda Wijepala, the Minister of Public Security, told Parliament that five police teams had been assigned to find the attacker. Police followed the signal from the stolen phone and found Ratnayake on March 12, hiding in a forested area of Galnewa. Police identified him as an army deserter who had been living in a monk's robes and said he had previously been charged with sexual harassment, drug possession and theft. When officers searched his house for the phone the next day, they found a hand grenade, a saffron robe and a palm-leaf fan. The doctor picked him out at an identification parade on March 28, 2025\. The same day, the chief magistrate ordered that he be examined by a psychiatrist at the teaching hospital and that the report be sent to the court. Its findings have not been made public. Ratnayake spent almost seven months in remand custody. On Oct. 3, 2025, the Anuradhapura Magistrate's Court granted him bail of Rs. 50,000 in cash and two sureties of Rs. 500,000 each. Police rearrested him the same day over the grenade, and he was remanded until Oct. 13. He has since been described in court as being on strict bail conditions, and a court order bars him from leaving the country. No requirement that he report to a police station, observe a curfew or stay away from any person or place has been made public, and no agency has said it was responsible for checking on him. On Feb. 23, 2026, he pleaded guilty before the Anuradhapura chief magistrate, Siyapath Sasindu Wickramarathne, to snatching the doctor's phone. He was sentenced to six months in prison and fined Rs. 1,500\. His sister and another man, who admitted helping to hide the phone, received suspended sentences. Under Sri Lanka's Bail Act, bail is the rule and refusal is the exception. Section 14 of the Act allows a court to refuse or cancel bail if it has reason to believe the accused would commit an offence while free. It is not known whether prosecutors or police invoked that provision when Ratnayake was released. On May 22, 2026, the Attorney General indicted him on charges of rape and sexual harassment. The indictment was filed directly in the Anuradhapura High Court as a special case, skipping the preliminary inquiry normally held before a magistrate. In June, Ratnayake pleaded not guilty before Judge Indika Attanayake of the North Central Province High Court. Prosecutors have listed 42 witnesses, among them the hospital's consultant judicial medical officer, senior police officers, and doctors and staff from the hospital. During remand hearings in 2025, Ratnayake told the magistrate that the encounter had been consensual. He also said police had beaten him in custody, and the court ordered an inquiry. A sub-inspector from the Children and Women's Bureau of the Anuradhapura police told the court that the consent claim was false and that Ratnayake was using the proceedings to defame and distress the doctor. The doctor took the stand for the first time in August. Judge Attanayake cleared the courtroom of everyone not connected to the case, and she testified for more than an hour and a half. Senior State Counsel Himali Jayaneththi is leading the prosecution. The doctor and her father, the second prosecution witness, were summoned to give further evidence when the hearing resumed on Oct. 19, and testimony has continued since. Officials have not said what the magistrate was told about Ratnayake's earlier charges when bail was granted, whether police or prosecutors opposed it, or whether the psychiatric report was before the court. Nor have they said when he was last released from custody, or whether the Attorney General will ask the High Court to cancel his bail in the rape case. Police have not said publicly who lives in the Galnewa house. Ratnayake is due to appear before the magistrate again on Nov. 20.