News
Court orders Fraud Bureau to record statements from minister, deputy minister
View(s):By Ranjith Padmasiri
Mount Lavinia Magistrate A.D. Chathurika De Silva has ordered the Colombo Fraud Investigation Bureau (CFIB) to obtain statements from Deputy Minister Mahinda Jayasinghe and Kaduwela Mayor Ranjan Jayalal over an incident where the pair are alleged to have obtained a Dehiwala property belonging to trade union National Workers’ Institute on lease basis, allegedly through Minister Wasantha Samarasinghe, who had claimed to be the trade union’s President.
The court also has ordered to obtain a further statement from Mr. Samarasinghe who has already given an initial statement.
The Magistrate gave the order to determine whether to grant a request made by Maithri Gunaratne, PC, who appeared for the aggrieved party, to order that Minister Wasantha Samarasinghe be named as a suspect in the case where the building belonging to the National Workers’ Institute had been fraudulently leased for Rs. 3.6 million. The magistrate also ordered the CFIB to produce all extracts related to the case.
Mr. Gunaratne produced 35 documents including deeds to the property as requested by court, but told court that police were yet to obtain statements from several persons whose statements were essential to the case.
The police informed court that statements had already been obtained from those who had signed the lease deeds and that they still needed to obtain statements from Ahamed Asthar, Mahinda Jayasinghe and Ranjan Jayalal.
Court also ordered the CFIB to produce the report from the National Workers’ Institute’s Annual General Meeting held on September 3, 2017 where Minister Samarasinghe had allegedly been elected its President, as well as all judgements related to the property in cases filed in the Kaduwela District Court and the Civil Appellate Court.
The case was postponed for August 22. Maithri Gunaratne, PC, with Attorneys-at-Law Kisal Senanayake and Ishad Shabdeen appeared for the rights of the aggrieved party, National Workers’ Institute.
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