Lohan Ratwatte and wife further remanded

Former Minister Lohan Ratwatte and his wife have been ordered to be remanded further until November 18 by the Nugegoda Magistrate’s Court.

The Magistrate also ordered that the bank accounts of the two suspects be checked and the video evidence presented to the court be forwarded to the Government Analyst.

The Magistrate issued this order after the two suspects were produced before the court by Prison Officers and DIG Ruwan Gunasekara presented the facts to the court.

The two suspects were ordered remanded in custody until November 18 after the bail request made on behalf of the suspects by President’s Counsel Sampath Mendis and other legal counsels was rejected.

The former Minister of State Lohan Ratwatte and his wife, who were arrested and remanded over the charges of using a luxury car illegally imported and assembled in Sri Lanka, were produced before the Nugegoda Magistrate’s Court this morning (07).

Ratwatte, who was arrested by Mirihana Police in Kandy on October 31, was ordered to be remanded by the Nugegoda Additional Magistrate until today.

However, on November 02, the former Minister was admitted to the prison hospital owing to an illness, where he was subsequently transferred to Colombo National Hospital.

Meanwhile, on November 04, Shashi Prabha Ratwatte, the wife of the former State Minister, was also arrested after appearing before the Nugegoda Magistrate’s Court in relation to the incident, as per a court order, where she was ordered to be remanded in custody until today.

Police had found the luxury car in question during an inspection carried out based on information received by the police headquarters regarding a luxury car without number plates at a three-storied house in the Embuldeniya area in Mirihana, belonging to Shashi Prabha Ratwatte, the wife of former State Minister Lohan Ratwatte.

During the investigation, both Ratwatte and his wife had explained to the police that his mother-in-law resides in the said house. They had claimed that the car had been brought there three weeks ago by Ratwatte’s private secretary, who was recently found dead with gunshot injuries in the Katugastota area of Kandy.

However, Ratwatte, who was admitted to the Prison Hospital for treatment on November 02, was later transferred to the Colombo General Hospital, owing to a sudden illness while in custody.