The reigning Mrs World has been arrested for pulling the crown off the head of the winner of a Mrs Sri Lanka beauty pageant and allegedly causing injuries.
Caroline Jurie, who won the Mrs World 2020 competition, was accused of hurting Pushpika De Silva, who won the Mrs Sri Lanka title at a televised pageant held in Colombo on Sunday.
Moments after De Silva won the title, Jurie, who is also Sri Lankan, came on stage and snatched the crown from her, saying she was ineligible because she was divorced. Jurie then gave the crown to the first-runner up, declaring she was the winner.
In a statement on her Facebook page, De Silva denied being divorced.
ආයුබෝවන්!මා හිතවත්, ආදරණීය, ගෞරවණීය, බුද්ධිමත් ශ්රී ලාංකික සහ ලෝකවාසී ජනතාවනි,සිදුවූ අනපේක්ෂිත සිදුවීම සම්බන්ධයෙන්… Posted by Pushpika de silva on Monday, April 5, 2021
“Being apart is one. Divorce is something else. I’m still an un divorced woman,” she wrote.
Police spokesman Ajith Rohana said police received a complaint from De Silva that she suffered injuries when her crown was removed.
Mr Rohana said Jurie and a model, Chula Padmendra, were arrested on charges of “simple hurt and criminal force” and were later released on bail. The two women have been ordered to appear in court on April 19.
Jurie declined to comment as she left the police station.
The incident at Sunday’s pageant, which was attended by the prime minister’s wife, created huge uproar in the Indian Ocean island nation. On Monday, organisers of the pageant said they would return the crown to De Silva.
