1 March 2022 12:00 am Views - 344
The Colombo High Court yesterday ordered to reject the preliminary objections raised by two accused including former North Central Province Chief Minister S. M. Ranjith Samarakoon in connection with a corruption case filed by the Bribery Commission.
The Bribery Commission had filed indictments before Colombo High Court against former North Central Province Chief Minister S. M. Ranjith Samarakoon and Shanthi Chandrasena, the spouse of Minister S.M. Chandrasena for allegedly causing an unlawful loss to the government when obtaining fuel allowance between September 27, 2012, and December 31, 2014. S.M. Ranjith Samarakoon is a brother of Minister of Lands S.M. Chandrasena.
High Court Judge Adithya Patabendige fixed the case for trial to be heard on July 10.
The Director-General of the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption filed indictments against S. M. Ranjith and his then private secretary Shanthi Chandrasena under section 70 of the Bribery Act on eight charges.
The Bribery Commission alleged that first accused S. M. Ranjith while serving as the North Central Province Chief Minister had made arrangements to allocate a sum of Rs.2.68 million to the official vehicle of his private secretary Shanthi Chandrasena despite her fuel allowance being added to her salary.
The indictments had been filed under five counts under section 70 of the Bribery Act and sections 113 and 102 of the Penal Code. Assistant Director-General of the Bribery Commission Asitha Anthony appeared for the prosecution.
Senior Counsel Sisira Rathnayaka with senior counsel Darshana Kuruppu, Mangala Ranaraja, Nilantha Wijesinghe, Buddhika Thilakarathna, Dineru Bandara appeared for the accused.