Former Minister Rajitha Senaratne, remanded over the ‘white van’ media conference incident, has been granted bail.

Colombo Additional Magistrate Priyantha Liyanage issued the bail grant when the case was taken up for hearing today (10).

The Magistrate ordered that the suspect Rajitha Senaratne be released on two personal bails worth Rs 500,000 each.

Additional Magistrate Priyantha Liyanage pointed out that the plaintiff states that the defendant absconded an arrest order issued on December 24, 2019, by admitting into a private hospital.

However, the Additional Magistrate Priyantha Liyanage pointed out that the suspect cannot be held under remand custody indefinitely as a penalty for the aforementioned incident. The Magistrate presented several court cases to prove this point.

He further pointed out that all charges against the suspect are eligible for bail and that there were no sufficient facts to refute him bail.

The former Health Minister was arrested last December and remanded over the controversial “white van” press conference organized by him in November, but he continued to receive treatment at the hospital.

On December 30, Colombo Magistrate’s Court ordered to release Senaratne on bail. 

However, the Attorney General filed a revision application on January 08 challenging the decision of the Magistrate Court to grant bail to the former Health Minister.

The Attorney General, in his revision application, had pointed out that the Colombo Magistrate’s Court has not taken into consideration the submissions by the prosecution before delivering the verdict to release Senaratne on bail.

On May 13, Senaratne was placed under arrest after he surrendered to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) and was placed under remand custody by Colombo Chief Magistrate Lanka Jayaratne.