Ravi’s writ application to come up for support tomorrow

The Court of Appeal has decided to support the writ application filed seeking to revoke the arrest warrants issued against former Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake, Perpetual Treasuries Limited (PTL) owner Arjun Aloysius and two others.

The writ application is to be taken up by the court tomorrow (11), Ada Derana reporter said.

The petition was taken up before a judge-bench comprising the President of the Appeals Court Justice A.H.M.D Nawaz and Justice Arjun Obeysekara.

President’s Counsel Faisz Musthapha, appearing on behalf of Mr Karunanayake, making submission to the court declared that the manner in which Fort Magistrate Ranga Dissanayake had issued the warrant was completely unlawful, unjust and arbitrary.

He charged that the magistrate had made absolutely no queries from his client’s side before issuing the warrant, which he claimed was done based on information from an extremely biased investigation.

He therefore requested the court to issue a temporary order preventing the execution of the arrest warrant.

The writ application had been filed on behalf of former minister Ravi Karunanayake, PTL owner Arjuna Aloysius, Central Bank employees Sangarapillai Pathumanapan and Indika Saman Kumara.

Lawyers representing Karunanayake today (10) filed a writ application before the Court of Appeal requesting the cancellation of the arrest warrant issued on their client.

Karunanayake, in his writ application, states that the Colombo Fort Magistrate issuing arrest warrant on him based on the B report submitted to the bench by the police is against the law, hence sought the Appeals Court to revoke the warrant.

In addition to this, the appeal has requested the Appeals Court to deliver an order that revokes the instructions given by the Attorney General to the Acting Inspector General of Police asking him to obtain an arrest warrant against the former minister.

In his writ petition, Karunanayake has further sought the Appeals Court to take the case away from the Colombo Fort magistrate.

The Attorney General, Director of the Criminal Investigation Department, Acting Inspector General of Police and several others have been named as the respondents of this writ application.

On 06 March, the Colombo Fort Magistrate’s Court issued warrants for the arrest of Karunanayake and 9 others over the Central Bank bond auctions of March 2016.

The Attorney General had directed the Acting IGP to obtain arrest warrants against several suspects in the Central Bank bond scam case including the former Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake, former Governor of the Central Bank Arjuna Mahendran, Perpetual Treasuries Limited (PTL) owner Arjun Aloysius, CEO Kasun Palisena, former Director of the Public Debt Department of the Central Bank T.H.B. Sarathchandra and several others on charges of conspiracy, criminal misappropriation, cheating, and market manipulation in respect of the bond auctions of March 2016.

The Colombo Fort Magistrate Ranga Dissanayake accordingly issued arrest warrants on ten suspects in the case, and, however, rejected the issuance of a warrant on the tenth suspect, Buddhika Sarathchandra.