Lalith Weeratunga and Anusha Palpita given bail

A Sri Lankan court today granted bail to the two high-profile State officials of the former Government charged of misusing State money.

The Colombo High Court today released Lalith Weeratunga, Secretary to the former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, and former Director General of the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission Anusha Palpita on strict bail conditions.

Both were released on a cash bail of Rs. 100,000 and three sureties of Rs. 1 million each.

High Court Judge Kusala Sarojini Weerawardena ordered to impound their passports and they are ordered to inform the Court if they changed their addresses. They were warned of arrest if they violate the bail conditions.

The Attorney General’s Department last month instructed the Financial Crimes Investigation Division (FCID) of police to arrest Weeratunga and Palpita for misusing Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (TRC) money.

Weeratunga, who was the Chairman of the TRC during the previous Government, and Palpita are charged with criminal misappropriation of Rs. 620 million of TRC money from 30 October 2014 to 5 January 2015 for election campaigns of former president Mahinda Rajapaksa.

The next hearing of the case was fixed for 9 November. (Colombopage)