Former Minister Ravi Karunanayake and seven others, who were remanded in connection with two separate cases related to the frauds that took place at the third bond auction held on March 29 and 31, 2016, were yesterday released on bail by the Colombo High Court Trial-at-Bar.
Former Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake, Perpetual Treasuries Limited (PTL) beneficiary owner Arjun Aloysius, PTL Chief Dealer Kasun Palisena, Chairman of PTL Jeffrey Joseph Aloysius, Chitta Ranjan Hulugalle, an executive officer of the Public Debt Department of the Central Bank Sangarapillai Padumanathan and an executive officer of the Employees Provident Fund Indika Saman Kumara were released on bail.
When the first case was taken up before the Colombo High Court Trial-at-Bar bench comprising High Court Judges Damith Thotawatte, Manjula Thilakaratne and Mohamed Irshadeen, the panel of judges announced a two-thirds split verdict and ordered to release the accused on bail.
Presiding Judge Damith Thotawatte and Colombo High Court Judge Mohamed Irshadeen decided to grant bail to the accused, deciding that Article 450 (6) of the Criminal Procedure Code was no longer valid and that the Bail Act would be effective beyond Article 450 (6) of the Criminal Procedure Code.
The two judges also ruled that the accused’ report on their illnesses as “special” could not be considered “special” and said that they would take into account the Attorney General’s status to grant bail to the accused in the first bond case filed in 2019. Taking into consideration the facts, the duo ordered that the accused be released on bail, taking into account the fairness of the case and the complexity of the case.
Announcing his decision, High Court Judge Manjula Tilakaratne said the High Court has no jurisdiction to grant bail to an accused under Section 450 of the Criminal Procedure Code when the Attorney General opposes to grant bail and that the High Court has no power to disregard the Act.
HCJ Tillekeratne ruled that the bail application was not relevant to granting bail to the accused under the Public Property Act and ordered that the accused be remanded.
Following a two-thirds majority, the Colombo High Court Trial-at-Bar bench finally decided to grant bail to the accused.
The Colombo High Court Trial-at-Bar granted bail to each of the accused on a cash bail of Rs. 1 million and two sureties of Rs. 5 million and ordered the accused not to violate the bail conditions or to intimidate the prosecution witnesses of the case. The bench also imposed travel ban against accused from traveling abroad and issued an order prohibiting them from traveling abroad till the end of the cases.