Sri Lankan court sends YouTuber Sepal Amarasinghe to 4-day police remand over blasphemous remarks

Colombo: A popular Sri Lankan YouTuber, who made derogatory remarks on the Sacred Tooth relic of the Buddha, was sent to police custody for four days by a court here on Friday, a day after he was arrested in Colombo.

The Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic is a Buddhist temple in Kandy. It is located in the royal palace complex of the former Kingdom of Kandy, which houses the relic of the tooth of the Buddha.

The Colombo Additional Magistrate issued the remand order for activist and YouTuber Sepal Amarasinghe after the Sri Lankan police produced him before the court.

Amarasinghe was arrested by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) on Thursday over his disparaging remarks on the Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic, the foremost shrine for Sri Lanka's 74 per cent Buddhist majority.

The arrest had come after parliamentarians across the aisle unanimously condemned Amarasinghe’s comments on his YouTube channel.

The police in a statement that it has been “observed” that the suspect had committed an offence by insulting the tooth relic and by acting in a manner derogatory to Buddhism.

Amarasinghe’s YouTube channel has nearly 80,000 subscribers and the outspoken man is well-known on social media for his unorthodox views that challenge what he claims are parochial traditions and customs.

He is also known for his biting, unfiltered political commentary and his tendency to take on religious extremists of all faiths.