Rohitha Abeygunawardane's case fixed for written submissions over preliminary objections of defence

By Shehan Chamika Silva

Permitting both parties to submit written submissions over two preliminary objections raised by the defence, the Colombo High Court postponed the case in which Parliamentarian, Rohitha Abeygunawardane was charged with the illegal acquisition of assets worth Rs. 41 million between 2004 to 2006.

The Bribery Commission had earlier indicted him in the Colombo High Court.

When the case was taken up before High Court Judge Nissanka Bandula Karunaratne, the Bribery Commission had sought court permission to amend the indictment by including a new witness list and other statements.

However, Defence Counsel, Kalinga Indatissa PC, who appeared for the accused, raised two preliminary objections on amending the indictment.

He moved that according to section 167 of the Criminal Procedure Code, the prosecution is only permitted to amend the indictment on two occasions.

Counsel ascertained that the prosecution is permitted only to replace an existing charge using a substitute amendment or add a completely new charge to the particular offence stated in the indictment.

Raising a preliminary objection, he moved that the he has not received a notice under section 7(1) of the Evidence Ordinance by the Bribery Commission over the listed witnesses of the case, adding that the listed witnesses in this case were based on computer generated statements, and therefore cannot be considered.

The judge thereafter asked both the prosecution and the defence to submit their stance in writing to the court over the preliminary objections raised by the defence and fixed October 31 as the date to file written submissions.

Defence counsel also said he would file a motion requesting court to permit his client to travel abroad for a month from September 24.

Considering the request the judge gave a calling date to decide on the request on September 9.

Fmr. JMO dispatched Thajudeen's body parts illegally during autopsy: State Counsel

By Shehan Chamika Silva

Senior State Counsel Dilan Ratnayake on Monday (5) told court that former Chief JMO, Ananda Samarasekara, during the first autopsy conducted by him on Wasim Thajudeen, had allegedly sent out body parts of the deceased from where it was under refrigeration which came under his purview.

Raising a preliminary objection against the petitioner's request, Senior State Counsel said that during the first autopsy on former ruggerite Wasim Thajudeen’s body, the former JMO had kept body parts of the victim under the refrigeration as case productions. Later, few days prior to his retirement, the former JMO had allegedly taken them out of the refrigerator and taken them with him.

The State Counsel also went on to say that it is possible to consider the body parts as public property because they were kept as case productions, which belong only to the State, therefore former JMO is not entitled to obtain anticipatory bail over the incident according provisions relating to the Bail Law.

He further said the former JMO had dispatched the body parts a year prior to delivering his autopsy report.

However, objecting to the prosecution stance, Shavendra Fernando, who appeared for the petitioner, ascertained that the prosecution had not filed a single B report during the main inquiry, stating that they were conducting an investigation under Public Property Act against the former JMO over missing body parts of Thajudeen.

Further he said even the missing body parts cannot be regarded as case productions since they were not listed as productions yet and therefore cannot be considered under the PPA.

Colombo Additional Magistrate Dulani Amarasinghe, after considering the stances of both parties, fixed September 9 as the date to submit their objections in writing in order to deliver the judgment on the anticipatory bail application.

Thajudeen Killing: To recover phone call details: CID sends CPU to Fentons

By Shehan Chamika Silva

The CID yesterday obtained a Court order to send the Central Processing Unit (CPU) of the computer recovered from the Presidential Secretariat (PS) to Fentons Ltd. to recover details of phone calls made by the PS between 6.00 p.m. on May 16 and 6.00 a.m. on May 17, 2012.

It was the time of Wasim Thajudeen's killing.

On an earlier occasion the CID informed Court that the details of phone calls from the PS and Temple Trees to Narahenpita Police OIC Damien Perera on that fateful day had been deleted from the PS data base.

The CID informed Colombo Additional Magistrate Nishantha Peiris that the Information and Communication Division of the PS had obtained its computer system obtained from Fentons Ltd. and hoped that the company's chief engineer would be able to recover the deleted details.

Court directs Welikada Prison to produce ex DIG Vass, son

By Shehan Chamika Silva

Colombo High Court Judge Pathmini N Ranawaka yesterday directed the Welikada Prison Authority to produce former DIG Vass Gunawardena and his son in Courts on September 19 over the case in which a Student in Malabe SLIIT was allegedly abducted and assaulted by the suspects.

Earlier, the Attorney General had inducted eight suspects including former DIG, his son and wife over allegedly abducting and assaulting Nipuna Ramanayaka, who is the victim.

When the case was taken up before court, former DIG and his son were not present in court since they were not produced by the Welikada Prison Authority.

Four CAA officers remanded over bribery charges

By Shehan Chamika Silva

Four investigation officers attached to the Gampaha Consumer Affairs Authority were ordered to be remanded till September 9 by Colombo Additional Magistrate Nishantha Peiris for allegedly soliciting a bribe of Rs.125, 000 from a businessman in Kelaniya.

The Bribery Commission alleged that the suspects had demanded the bribe on the undertaking that no legal action would be taken against a Polythene Factory in which the products were not properly labelled and released to the market.

Raviraj killing -- Trial to begin in absence of 3 suspects

By Shehan Chamika Silva

Considering the submissions by the prosecution under Section 241 of the Penal Code, Colombo High Court Judge Manilal Waidyathilaka decided to begin the trial on the killing of former TNA MP Nataraj Raviraj and his driver, in the absence of three of the suspects.

The Attorney General had earlier indicted six suspects on four counts in the Colombo High Court on charges of killing of Mr. Ravisraj and his driver in 2006.

The Suspects Prasad Hettiarachchi, Gamini Seneviratne and Pradeep Chaminda are in the remand custody while three others Palana Sami Suresh, Sivakanth Vivekanandan and Fabian Royston Toussaint are missing.

The case was fixed for September 7.

Bambalapitiya Businessman's killing --- Seven suspects arrested

By Shehan Chamika Silva

The seven suspects arrested in connection with the abduction and killing of Mohammad Sulaiman, were ordered by Colombo Additional Magistrate Nishantha Peiris to be detained for 48 hours under the custody of the Colombo Crimes Division (CCD).

The suspects are residents of Adurupuweediya, Sedawatta, Wellampitiya, Colombo 12 and 14.

The CCD informed court that the according to the JMO's report the Bambalapitiya businessman had died from the injuries he suffered from being assaulted by a blunt weapon.

Hacking President's website --- Student and another released on bail

By Shehan Chamika Silva
The 17-year-old student arrested on charges of hacking President Maithripala Sirisena's official website, was released on bail with two sureties of one million rupees each.

The other suspect, 27-year-old Janith Madushanka was also released by Colombo Chief Magistrate Gihan Pilapitiyaon on a cash bail of Rs.25,000 with four sureties of one million each.

Observing that the teenager was a bright student, the Magistrate advised the parents to keep an eye on him because it was revealed that he was a stubborn boy.

The CID informed court that an international hacker residing in Bangladesh, known as 'Skidie Khan', had also helped the teenager to hack the President's website.

According to information revealed by the student, the the Bangladeshi had hacked into the SLT data base, which operates the President's website.

The defence counsel appearing for the student said his client had not committed any offence with any criminal intent because he had only submitted some demands to the President.

The CID said another 37 websites have been hacked by the suspects using a hacking network.

The 27-year-old suspect had associated with the teenager providing the background platform to hack into websites by creating a forum named as Yakadaya.

Meanwhile, the prosecution had recovered some IP numbers during the investigation and one number is located abroad.

Avant Garde case: Gota and 7 others noticed to appear in Courts

By Shehan Chamika Silva

Former Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa, Nissanka Senadipathi and six others were yesterday noticed to appear in courts on September 30 by Colombo Chief Magistrate Gihan Pilapitiya over the inquiry conducted under the Corruption charges filed by the Bribery Commission.

The commission alleged that the suspects had committed the offence by permitting the Avant Garde Maritime Services to operate a floating armory supporting AGMS to earn Rs. 11.4 billion causing a financial loss to the government.

The other six suspects were Sujatha Damayanthi, Palitha Piyasiri Fernando, Karunaratne Bandara Adhikari, Somathilaka Dissanayake, Jayanath Sirikumara Colambage and Jayantha Perera.

Weerawansa’s brother remanded

By Shehan Chamika Silva

Former Minister Wimal Weerawansa's brother Sarath Weerawansa, who was arrested by the FCID under the Public Property Act for allegedly causing a loss of Rs.10.5 million to the Government, was ordered to be remanded till September 7 by Colombo Fort Magistrate Lanka Jayaratne.

He was arrested on charges of misusing a government vehicle attached to the Presidential Secretariat and obtaining fuel allowance from the Housing and Construction Ministry illegally.

The FCID told court that the Presidential Secretariat in 2009 had permitted to obtain 12 vehicles for parliamentarians elected from the NFP and the suspect, who was not a parliamentarian at that moment, had illegally obtained one vehicle of it and used it for personal purposes until 2015 causing a Rs. 8.9 million financial loss to the government.

Later in 2012, the suspect had been appointed as the private secretary to the then Minister of Housing and Construction and had obtained a fuel allowance of Rs. 1.6 million under the disguise that he would use his private vehicle for ministerial works while already using a vehicle given by the PS.