The writ petitions filed by former Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake, Perpetual Treasuries Limited (PTL) owner Arjun Aloysius and two others will be taken up before Court of Appeal for further consideration today (13).
A three-judge bench headed by the Appeals Court President, Justice A. H. M. D. Nawaz will sit for the hearing.
The defence attorneys, filing the writ applications on behalf of their clients, have claimed that the Colombo Fort Magistrate issuing an arrest warrant on them 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 and others.
The writ application 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 were 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.
In the meantime, the Appeals Court on Wednesday (11) appointed a three-judge bench to hear the writ application filed by the former Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake and three others, taking into consideration a request by the Attorney General.
