LALITH Weeratunga Indicted

By Ishara Rathnakara- 2015-09-15

The Attorney General (AG) had filed action in the High Court of Colombo against Lalith Chandrakumar Weeratunga, the Secretary to the former President, and Anusha Palpita, former Director-General of the Sri Lanka Telecom Regulatory Commission (SLTRC) for misappropriating Rs 600 million from SLTRC.

They have been charged expending the said quantum of money from the SLTRC stating that the money is for distributing sil redi for devotees.

The Colombo High Court Judge, Kusala Sarojini Weerawardena yesterday (14) decided to take up the case on 18 September and requested the AG to produce the initial reports of the Magistrate's Court and the Court productions on that date.

In the case filed by the Attorney General under public property Act, 21 prosecution witnesses including the Elections Commissioner, Mahinda Deshapriya and the former President's coordinating secretary (religious affairs) Ven. Vatinapane Somananda Thera have been cited, and 15 Court productions were presented.

The AG alleged that between 30 October 2014 and 05 January 2015, Rs 600 million belonging to SLTRC had been transferred to account No. 7040016, in the name of 'President's Secretary' at Bank of Ceylon Taprobane branch. This has been done in violation of SLTRC act no 25 of 1991.

The investigations into this incident were conducted by the Financial Crimes Investigation Division (FCID), and this was the first instance where the Attorney General filed a case in the high court following an FCID investigation.