The High Court Trial-at-Bar rules that public property charges cannot be maintained against them.
The Colombo High Court Trial-at-Bar today ordered the release of ten accused, including Central Bank former Governor Arjuna Mahendran, from the charges filed under the Public Property Act in connection with the first Central Bank bond issuance that took place in February 2015.
The Colombo High Court Trial-at-Bar bench, by majority decision, ruled that the public property charges could not be maintained against the accused and ordered the release of ten of them.
Accordingly, the case will proceed against the accused on the remaining charges filed under the Registered Stocks and Securities Ordinance.
The Colombo High Court Trial-at-Bar bench is comprised of Colombo High Court Judges Sanjeewa Morais, Damith Thotawatta, and Namal Balalle.
The Attorney General had filed indictments against former Central Bank Governor Arjuna Mahendran, former Bank Deputy Governor P. Samarasiri, Perpetual Treasuries Limited (PTL), the PTL beneficiary owner Arjun Joseph Aloysius, PTL Chief Dealer Kasun Palisena, Chairman of Perpetual Treasuries Limited Jeffrey Joseph Aloysius, and PTL directors Pushya Mithra Gunawardena, Chitta Ranjan Hulugalle, Muthuraja Surendran, and Ajahn Gardiya Punchihewa in connection with the first bond issuance.
The Court made this order following preliminary objections raised by the defence challenging the maintainability of the charges against the accused. The court fixed the case with other charges based on the Registered Stocks and Securities Ordinance for pre-trial on December 16.
According to the indictments, all ten accused have been charged with conspiracy to commit criminal misappropriation in respect of treasury bonds to the face value of Rs. 10.058 billion, and Mahendran and Samarasiri have been charged with criminal breach of trust in respect of Treasury Bonds to the face value of Rs. 10.058 billion, resulting in a loss to the government of Rs. 688.76 million.
Former Deputy Governor P. Samarasiri is accused of abetting the former Central Bank governor, Arjuna Mahendran, to commit a criminal breach of trust in respect of Treasury Bonds. The PTL is accused of insider dealing and criminal misappropriation in respect of Treasury Bonds to the face value of Rs 5 billion. Mahendran, Samarasiri, Aloysius, Palisena, and the director board of PTL are accused of abetting PTL to commit insider dealing and criminal misappropriation.
The charges were presented under the Public Property Act and the Registered Stocks and Securities Ordinance. The Attorney General has named 115 individuals as prosecution witnesses and further listed 236 documents as production items. The supporting evidence in the form of court productions is understood to number over 1 million pages of documents.
