Former immigration controller makes admission over Shashi’s passport

The case filed by the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) against MP Wimal Weerawansa’s wife Shashi Weerawansa on charges of submitting forged documents to obtain a diplomatic passport was taken up for hearing at the Colombo Chief Magistrate’s Court today (23).

Former Immigration and Emigration Controller Chulananda Perera, testifying before the court, said that although the normal passport of the defendant states that the year of her birth is 1967, her diplomatic passport shows her birth year as 1971. 

He also said that although the two passports showed a disparity of 4 year with regard to her date of birth, he did not complain about that issue to the CID or any other institution. 

Meanwhile the attorneys representing Sashi Weerawansa requested the court to instruct the Immigration and Emigration Controller to issue a new passport for their client to travel overseas. 

However, the Chief Magistrate Lal Ranasinghe Bandara responded saying he has no authority to make such a directive. The Chief Magistrate pointed out that the court has not issued any stay order preventing the issuance of a passport to the defendant and that therefore the officials of the Immigration and Emigration Department have the ability to take a decision on the matter.  

The case was postponed until June 08.