The Colombo Magistrate’s Court has lifted the order issued directing the officials of the relevant insurance companies to suspend for a period of one week the life insurance payments to beneficiaries on behalf of the late businessman Dinesh Schaffter who had died under mysterious circumstances.

Colombo Additional Magistrate Rajindra Jayasuriya issued this order today (Nov. 15), stating that the said order will be rescinded as the court feels it is no longer necessary to suspend the insurance payments to the concerned parties. 

Furthermore, the Additional Magistrate further mentioned that it has not been revealed that any other party is trying to obtain the said compensation.

On November 08, the Colombo Magistrate’s Court issued an order to the relevant officials of the insurance companies to suspend the payment of the insurance compensation to the concerned beneficiaries, for a period of one week after considering a request made by the Police Homicide and Organized Crimes Division.

Earlier this month, the court determined that the death of businessman Dinesh Schaffter occurred as a result of an external pressure applied on his neck and the facial area, after the five-member experts’ committee comprising Judicial Medical Officers appointed to uncover the actual cause of death of the late businessman Schaffter submitted its report on the post-mortems to the court.

Accordingly, the magistrate who ruled that a crime had been committed through this incident, ordered the Director of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) to arrest the relevant suspects and produce them before the courts.

There, the Additional Magistrate ordered the CID to take measures to hand over the remains of the late businessman, which are currently placed at the Karapitiya Teaching Hospital, to his family members. She also ordered to provide necessary facilities for the burial of the remains at the Jawatte Cemetery, as per the previous court orders.

Former Director of the Janashakthi PLC Group, Dinesh Schaffter, was found tied up in his car at the General Cemetery in Borella on 15 December 2022 and died a day later while receiving treatment at the ICU of the National Hospital in Colombo.