70 million fraud : Namal released on bail

By Shehan Chamika Silva

UPFA MP Namal Rajapaksa, who was arrested on charges of misappropriating Rs.70 million paid to him by the company known as ‘Krrish’ to conduct a rugby tournament held in 2013, was today released on bail by Fort Magistrate Lanka Jayaratne.

He was released on cash bail of Rs. 50,000 With three sureties of 500,000 each. The Magistrate imposed a travel ban on the suspect.

The court also allowed FCID to peruse into bank details of the suspect in four banks.

He was remanded earlier over the charges under sections 386,389 and 400, “Dishonest misappropriation, Criminal breach of trust, Cheating”, of the Penal Code and under the Money Laundering Act.

The FCID alleged that according to investigation conducted so far the suspect had not proven how he had spent the money given by the Krrish Company in to the rugby tournament organized in 2013.

According to the FCID the suspect had connections with the Director Board of the company named ‘Krrish’ and acquired the keenness to provide a sponsorship for the development of the Rugby.

Accordingly the company agreed to provide Rs. 70 million to a rugby tournament which was about to be held in 2013 June.

The amount of money was however deposited into an account belonging to a person called Nimal Perera, Chairman of Ceylon Premier Sports and later the amount of money was obtained by the suspect, said the FCID.

According to Defence lawyers, the tournament was organized by the Ceylon Premier Sports (CPS) and Ceylon Super Sports (CSS). CPS was dealing with all the ten teams while the CSS was handling the event.

Filing a further report over the inquiry, the FCID yesterday told that according to the information revealed from the statement given by the suspect on July 11, it had obtained details relating to the bank transactions made to the New Zealand national George Simpkins, during the tournament.

The FCID said it would take appropriate steps to take a Statement from the New Zealand national over the incident in a diplomatic manner.

The prosecution also said that it was continuing a broad investigation into the five companies belonging to Bangladesh National Ahamad Al Samaan in Sri Lanka.

The FCID suspected that the Mr. Rajapaksa had deposited the Rs. 50 million in Bangladesh national, Al Saman’s account. Later the suspect had withdrawn it from the foreigner and obtained another Rs. 50 million from a bank as a loan to purchase the company named Hellocorp committing a crime that fell under the Money Laundering Act.

FCID also said that it had recorded statements from Sri Lanka Rugby Association Executive Director, Roshan Gunaratne over the incident.

Appearing for the suspect Counsel Sampath Mendis said that the FCID had not put summarized statements recorded from the Directors of the Krrish Company in their B report and further reports yet. The counsel said the Krrish company’s statements are very essential to the inquiry and the FCID had consciously covered those statements from the court.

The counsel said that the alleged money was received to the Nimal perera between October to Decrmber in 2012 and later on December 15,2012 the suspect had sent an appreciating letter thanking the sponsorship for the tournament  along with an attachment of how he spent money for the expenses in the tournament.

And the expenses were actually relating to the tournament organised in 2012 not for the 2013 tournament, said Counsel.

However, the prosecution said that they only received one letter from the Krrish Company and there was no attachment about the expenses.

Further they said that the Nimal perera had withdrawn money and had given to the suspect in May 2013.

Jayantha Weerasinghe submitting the bail application requested the Magistrate to grant bail on the suspect since the charges put forward by the prosecution are bailable under the Bail Act and his client had not intervened with witnesses or caught up with hampering the investigation so far.

The Magistrate considering all the submissions directed the prosecution to submit summarized statements recorded from the directors, R.P. Gupta and Amith Kattiyal of the Krrish Company in court on the next date.

Acceding the bail request the Magistrate granted bail on the suspect considering the fact that the suspect had not intervened with witnesses or affected the investigation so far. 

The further inquiry was put off for August 8.