Mrs Sri Lanka winner injured after on-stage brawl

Pushpika De Silva's award was seized after it was wrongfully claimed that she was divorced, which is against rules

The winner of Sri Lanka's biggest beauty prize has suffered head injuries after a brawl broke out on stage, BBC reported.

According to the news report, beauty queen Pushpika De Silva won the "Mrs Sri Lanka" title at a ceremony on national TV on Sunday.

The news article says that the 2019 winner seized Ms De Silva's crown, claiming she could not be awarded the title because she was divorced.

The prize has now been returned to Ms De Silva, after pageant organisers confirmed she is not a divorcee.

Judges named Ms De Silva the 2021 winner at the Mrs Sri Lanka final in a theatre in Colombo on Sunday night.

But the 2019 winner, Caroline Jurie, stripped Ms De Silva of her crown, citing a pageant rule that competitors must be married and not divorced.

"There is a rule that prevents women who have already been married and are divorced, so I am taking steps to make the crown go to second place," Ms Jurie told the audience.

She placed the crown on the runner-up, prompting a tearful Ms De Silva to walk off stage, a video of the incident showed.

The organisers have apologised to Ms De Silva, who says she is separated, but not divorced, according to BBC.

In a Facebook post, she said she went to hospital to be treated for head injuries after the incident.

Ms De Silva said she would take legal action for the "unreasonable and insulting" way she was treated.

"I'm still an un-divorced woman," she wrote. "A true queen is not a woman who snatches another woman's crown, but a woman who secretly sets another woman's crown!"