Court orders CID to arrest and produce Basil Rajapaksa

Fort Magistrate Pasan Amarasinghe today (17) ordered the Criminal Investigation Department’s (CID) Illegal Assets Investigation Unit to arrest former minister Basil Rajapaksa and produce him before court in connection with an alleged misuse of funds belonging to the Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau.

The order was issued when the magistrate inquiry into the case was taken up before the Fort Magistrate’s Court today.

During the proceedings, President’s Counsel Kalinga Indatissa, appearing for the third suspect, informed court that his client was willing to make a confidential statement under Section 127 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.

The CID’s Illegal Assets Investigation Unit has reported to court that a sum of Rs. 7.8 million allocated to the Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau in 2014 had allegedly not been used for promotional activities.

Instead, the funds were reportedly used to provide 12,000 T-shirts for the Uva Provincial Council election campaign, causing a loss to the state.

The magistrate also ordered the release of the Bureau’s former Managing Director, Roumi Jauffer, who had been remanded in custody over the incident, on two surety bails of Rs. 10 million each. A travel ban was also imposed on the suspect.

Investigating officers informed court that charges against the suspects had been filed under the Public Property Act.

The magistrate further questioned CID officers on whether the Bureau’s former Finance Director, who is named in the B-report, would also be designated as a suspect in the case.

In response, CID officials stated that they were still awaiting instructions from the Attorney General regarding that matter.

Addressing the open court, Magistrate Amarasinghe noted that both the former Managing Director, identified as the third suspect, and the Finance Director named in the B-report had signed the first and third vouchers related to the transaction. However, since the Finance Director had not yet been arrested, the court decided to grant bail to the third suspect.

Accordingly, Roumi Jauffer, the third suspect in the case, was released on bail.

The case is scheduled to be recalled on October 14.

Earlier, on June 10, the court also ordered the release of the second suspect, former Tourism Promotion Bureau Chairman Bhashwara Gunawardena, on two surety bails of Rs. 10 million each.