Motion to charge two top officials of Central Bank over bond scam

Friday, 25 January 2019 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

A motion has been submitted to the Colombo Magistrate’s Court to name the Senior Deputy Governor of the Central Bank, Nandalal Weerasinghe, and the retired Deputy Governor, Ananda Silva, as suspects in the Central Bank bond scam.

The second suspect of the Central Bank bond scam, former director of Perpetual Treasuries Limited Arjun Aloysius, filed the motion when the bond scam case was taken up for hearing before Colombo Chief Magistrate Lanka Jayaratne.

The attorney appearing for Arjuna Aloysius informed the Court that the Presidential Commission which had examined the bond issue had recommended that Nandalal Weerasinghe and Ananda Silva also should be held responsible for the Central Bank bond scam.

The Defence attorneys informed the Court that the Auditor General’s report on the Central Bank bond inquiry has also directly implicated the two officials in the fraud.

The Defence lawyers, accusing the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of neglecting to name the two Central Bank officials as suspects in the bond scam case and avoiding their arrest, requested the Court to order the two men to be identified as suspects of the case.

The Chief Magistrate, considering the motion, said the request should be made when the officials are also present.

Accordingly, the Magistrate ordered the Defence lawyers to take steps to present the two officials in the court on the next hearing date on 25 February.

The lawyers also requested the Court to grant permission for Arjun Aloysius to enter the Director Board of Perpetual Treasuries Limited.

The Magistrate informed the Defendant’s lawyers to also present submissions on this request at the next hearing.