12 August 2016 01:48 pm
This racket came to light on an anonymous complaint made to the Tourism Development Authority.
The police revealed that a man identified as Imran Hasan Ali and working as the Chief Operating Officer of a company known as 'Encounter Lanka Tours' in Colombo 5 was the brains behind this racket.
Earlier, the police noticed the suspects said to be involved in this racket to appear in court today and 13 of the 16 Chinese present in court today.
The defence counsel said the other three suspects were out of the Colombo and as such unable to be in Court.
In the wake of the defence counsel undertaking to urge the Chinese suspects to leave Sri Lanka immediately, the Colombo Chief Magistrate directed the counsel to report to court on August 16 to confirm whether they had left the country and allowed the passports to be released to them.
The defence counsel also assured Court that he would make sure that the other three Chinese also left Sri Lanka.
Meanwhile, the main suspect, Imran Hasan Ali was released on a cash bail of Rs.50, 000 with two sureties of Rs. 1 million each with a travel ban imposed on him. (Shehan Chamika Silva)