Human Interest

Sri Lankan beauty queen goes to police after decrowning

Colombo, Apr 7 (efe-epa).- The winner of a beauty pageant in Sri Lanka on Wednesday lodged a complaint with the police over damage to her self respect when she was stripped off the crown for being a divorcee.

In her complaint, Pushpika De Silva claimed her self respect suffered a blow when her Mrs. World crown was snatched by Caroline Jurie, a former winner of the pageant, soon after she was announced the winner on Sunday.

“I can forgive them but I can’t forget what they did. They hurt my self-respect. Donning me with 500 new crowns will not take the hurt away,” De Silva told EFE.

After De Silva was declared the winner and crowned, Jurie appeared on stage and announced that she failed to meet the pageant’s requirements because she was divorced.

“There is a rule that you have to be married and not divorced, so I am taking my first steps in saying that the crown goes to the first runner-up,” Jurie said before proceeding to take the crown off De Silva.

However, on Tuesday De Silva was crowned again in a much smaller ceremony after the organizers of the event announced to the media that she was the rightful winner of the title.

The event came a day after she treated for head injuries at a hospital.

“When she (Jurie) crowned me after I won the pageant it was like she hit me with the crown. The crown was already very heavy and when she pushed it into my head it hurt. Then later she yanked the crown from my head,” De Silva told EFE.

She added that as a result, the following day her head hurt and she fainted due to the injuries from the event.

“Even now I am very sick. My doctor said that my pressure was high and asked me to rest,” she said.

Local franchise-holder of the event, Chandimal Jayasinghe, told EFE that the incident was disgraceful for Sri Lanka.

“This competition was held for a period of three months. None of the competitors behaved that way. I think she (Jurie) was not happy when her friends didn’t win the crown,” he said.

The police investigation into the incident is expected to take place on Thursday. EFE-EPA

ap/sc

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