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Cabraal ‘was only performing his duties’, counsel submits
View(s):By Ranjith Padmasiri
The Colombo High Court this week conditionally discharged former Central Bank Governor Ajith Nivard Cabraal from the case where he was indicted for investing in Greek bonds during an economic crisis and thereby causing a loss to the state.
Mr Cabraal was ordered to pay back the estimated loss of Rs 1.8 billion back to the state, within three months.
Accordingly, the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption (CIABOC) was allowed to withdraw the indictment against Mr Cabraal.
However, the Bribery Commission reserved the right to refile indictments, if the funds are not deposited in the Central Bank account in the stipulated period.
The judgement was delivered by Colombo High Court Judge Mohammed Mihal.
Nivard Cabraal
Former Deputy Governors K D Dharmasena Dheerasinghe and D B Vasantha Ananda Silva, and Assistant Governor H A Karunaratna who were the second, third and fifth accused respectively, were also discharged after the indictments were withdrawn. The fourth accused in the case passed away earlier.
Deputy Director General of CIABOC Asitha Anthony, appearing on behalf of the complainant told courts that the commission had taken into consideration a written request by the counsel for Mr Cabraal under clause 67 of the Anti-Corruption Act.
Under clause 67, the Director General of CIABOC with the sanctions of the commission and permission of the High Court, may withdraw the indictments subject to conditions.
Among the conditions are, that representations by the accused person or on his behalf by his attorney-at-law can be considered and the Director General may withdraw the indictment on conditions which includes providing reparation to victims of the offence, as specified by the commission.
The Counsel for the Bribery Commission said that on the condition that Mr Cabraal pays Rs 1,843,267,595.65 to a Central Bank account, the indictments were being withdrawn while reserving the right to refile the indictments, if the condition is not fulfilled in three months.
A copy of the conditions was handed over by the CIABOC counsel, the counsel of Mr Cabraal in open court.
The Bribery Commission also sought permission from courts to withdraw the indictments against the other three accused in terms of Section 194 (3) of the Code of Criminal Procedure.
Dilan Ratnayake, PC, the counsel appearing for Mr Cabraal in his submissions said that it was unfair to impose a condition to discharge accused as he was only performing his duties.
He said that the charges against the 1st accused in this case cannot be sustained in legal grounds.
He said that they do not accept the allegation that the investment was carried out intentionally to cause a loss to the state and therefore they cannot accept the condition as they do not accept the allegation.
He said there is a Monetary Board in the Central Bank which is the Exchange Rate Board which always takes decisions. He said if there are 10 decisions made by the Monetary Board this year, 9 of them were successful and the investments made from those decisions yielded beneficial results and that was the year Sri Lanka gained the most profits while one of the causations was not a requirement to withdraw the indictments.
Earlier, in 2024, the Bribery Commission had filed indictments against the same accused before the Colombo High Court.
President’s Counsel Dilan Ratnayake appeared on behalf of the 1st defendant, along with Attorney Nipun Navaratne.
Attorney-at-law Malindu Peiris and attorney-at-law Dinuk Senarath Bandara appeared for 2nd defendant.
Attorney Rajith Abeysekara, Attorney Shalika Gunawardena, and President’s Counsel Nalin Laddu Hetti appeared on behalf of the 3rd and 5th defendants.
Deputy Director General of CIABOC Asitha Anthony, appeared on behalf of the
complainant.
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