Lalith Kotelawala should be in jail instead of resting in a hospital bed, said Chief Justice Sarath N. Silva in open court when the fundamental rights petitions filed by 23 depositors of the failed Golden Key Credit Card Company Ltd came up for hearing on Monday.
He added that Mr. Kotelawala had taken everyone for a ride. The Chief Justice made this comment when he inspected the list of assets submitted by the GK management through the Attorney General’s Department. Rejecting the payment plan and the list of assets, the CJ said that the value mentioned in some of these assets were unrealistic and over valued. “I can nominate where Kotelawala should stay,” he said in court.
It had transpired at the hearing in the Mount Lavinia Magistrates Court that Kotelawala had failed to assist the CID investigation and that he had refused to give a statement on three occasions to CID officers who went to record his statement, citing ill health. He is at room No 9 of the Merchant Ward at the Colombo National Hospital with two prison guards stationed outside his room since his admission to hospital on February 27.
Deputy Solicitor General Sarath Jayamanne informed the Mount Lavinia Magistrate on March 26 that CID sleuths who were at the hospital premises had found that a large number of people including well-known and influential persons had visited the hospital to see Mr. Kotelawala and he talked to them despite his ill health. This matter should be investigated, he said. |
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