9 July 2019 12:02 am
By T. Farook Thajudeen
President Maithripala Sirisena’s former Chief of Staff I.H.K. Mahanama and former Head of State of the Timber Corporation P. Dissanayake were indicted in the Special High Court trial–at–bar for accepting a bribe of Rs.20 million offered by an Indian interested in investing and acquiring the Kantale Sugar Factory under a Board of Investment
(BoI) project.
The two accused were indicted by the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption (CIABOC) on the charges of accepting a bribe of Rs.20 million and soliciting Rs.540 million from the Indian investor.
The indictments were served on the two accused. They were released on a cash bail of Rs.500,000 with three sureties of Rs.1 million each. The trial–at-bar comprised High Court Judges Sampath Abeykoon, Sampath Wijeratne and Champa Janaki Rajaratne.
Their passports were impounded. The trial was fixed for July 22 by the Special High Court.
The officers attached to CIABOC arrested I.H.K. Mahanama and P. Dissanayake at the car park of a hotel in Colombo while they accepted Rs.20 million from the investor for the transfer of a plot of land.
They were remanded after being produced in court and later released on bail by the Colombo Chief Magistrate.
Subsequent to the incident, the President suspended them from duties and the commission was instructed to enforce the law against the two without any obstruction.