Nishantha Gajanayaka accused of abductions and killings bailed out

Colombo No: 01 Magistrate Nishantha Hapuarachchi bailed out Nishantha Gajanayaka and three others who were kept in custody for eight months for charges of abductions and killings.

They were ordered cash bail on Rs. 50,000 each and Rs, 2.5 million personal bai. of public servants,

All of them were ordered to surrender their passports to CID.

CID requested from the courts to act in accordance with the normal law regarding the suspects.

CID informed that no witnesses had come forward and one witness who left the country for Austrailia had been tried to bring back via Interpol.

Counsel Manjula Pathiraja appeared for Nishantha Gajanayaka while Counsels Sanjaya Gamage and Anton Senanayaka appeared for the other suspects.

The opposition accused the government for being in connivance with the criminals who abducted Tamils and Muslims for taking ransom. The Civil Monitoring Committee convened by MP Mano Ganeshan also led a campaign against them and the UN was also informed of them.

UNP MP Lakshman Senevirathna first accused that the main suspect Nishantha Gajanayaka was behind the abductions and killings. Several days after this exposure, Gajanayaka was arrested and detained.

Several government MPs brought a no-confidence motion against MP Senevirathna based on this exposure.

Third party suspected behind the killings in south, says the President

Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapakse says that he has suspicion over the involvement of a third party in the killings in south since there are LTTE associates among the cannabis growers.

At a discussion with foreign and local guest journalists at Temple Trees, the President stated that he did not believe that the two recent 'sound bomb' explosions in Colombo Railwaystaion and LakeHouse were conducted by LTTE.

He further said that the All Party Representative Committee (APRC) proposals would be implemented to seek a political solution to the ethnic problem. The Provincial Council system will be implemented fully, he said.

The President said that he did not believe a military solution to the Tamil problem and however, there was no option to war on LTTE terrorism.

The President said to media that he had ordered to the APRC to submit the proposals tomorrow and he would declare them on January 25.

The President emphasized that the APRC proposals were not his proposals but the proposals of all parties.

The President recalled that he was the first to oppose the ceasefire with the LTTE in 2002 as the Opposition Leader and he had to wait two years to abolish it. He further recalled his statement at a mass rally at Mathara that the ceasefire would be abrogated if LTTE targeted civilians.

Ravi, wife and father-in-law pickpocket Rs. 20 million from a foreigner

Colombo Fort Magistrate and Additional District Judge Namal Bandara ordered the CID yesterday (21) to probe the bank accounts of a company belonged to UNP Colombo district MP Ravi Karunanayaka over an alleged misappropriation of Euro 145,000 invested in the company by a foreign national.

CID made a request from the court to probe the accounts based on a complaint lodged by Antonian P. Strawicks who is a resident of Sri Lanka for 22 years. He ran a tourist hotel in the name Hotel Lalanika in Ambalangoda until 1997 and later sold the property to one T.R.R. Rajan of Katugasthota, Kandy in 1997.

With the support of the property sales broker Shivantha Chinthaka Rodrigo, the complainer has approached Janesha Mahasri Jayawardhana identified himself as the father-in-law of then Minister Ravi Jayawardhana and invested Euro 200,000 in a company named Rotten Vander belonged to the Minister.

He has invested money in the company with the promise of monthly dividends and assistance to obtain residential visa. Janesha Mahasri Jayawardhana and Melatine Viranthi Karunanayaka who appeared as MP Karunanayaka's wife signed the agreement on behalf of the company as the Chairman and a director respectively.

After several months, paying dividends came to an end all attempts of the complainer to contact the above mentioned persons failed. A check (No: 294951) issued by the company under the number 0141000000469 account of Nations Trust Bank Metropolitan Branch on 10 - 07 - 2005 to the value of Rs. 500,000 also returned.

The complainer said that while he filed a case in Colombo District Court against this fraud, the company was closed and a new company under the name of I.J.S. Global Lanka was launched in the same place under the same directorate.

CID has recorded statements from ten individuals and sought the permission from courts to probe the relevant accounts of Seylan Bank - Ambalangoda Branch, Nation Trust - York Street Branch and Commercial Bank - Bristol Street Branch. Court granted permission and informed the CID to resubmit the complaint after the investigation.