CID probes Passikudah land grab from Swiss Nationals
The Rs.169 million worth Passikudah prime beach front land deal for a hotel project of the Passikudah Beach Resort Ltd, a subsidiary of listed public company Citrus Leisure PLC, is now being investigated by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) as the ownership of the property has being disputed in court, a senior CID officer said on Tuesday.
Citrus Leisure PLC is driven by the founder of Triad Advertising Group, Dilith Jayaweera while his Triad co-founder Varuni Amunugama is a board director. Its’ chairman is well-known tourism industry personality Prema Cooray and other members of the board are P.C.B. Talwatte (Director/CEO), R. Seneviratne, J.M.B. Pilimatalawwe, S.D. De Mel and P.V.S. Premawardhana (Independent Non-Executive Director), according to the Colombo Stock Exchange website.
Legal proceedings have been instituted in the District Court of Valachchenai for alleged fraudulent land transactions involving several persons with connections to government politicians and military officers, a counsel appearing for two Swiss nationals, owners of the land.
He said that his clients says that the property owned by them had been illegally sold by a local party to other local parties from whom the listed Citrus Leisure subsidiary had bought it.
J. Thangavelu, Attorney-at-Law and retired Police DIG-Legal, told the Business Times that two criminal cases filed on December 12, 2011 bearing Nos. B585 and B589/2011 are proceeding in the Magistrate’s Court, Valachchenai.
Since the Kalkudah Police had been dragging its feet into these investigations, they had been transferred to the Special Crime Investigation Branch of the Batticaloa Police, he revealed.
Thereafter in view of action not having been taken, these investigations into fraudulent land deals were transferred to the CID. These investigations are now being handled by the CID, he added.
The cases are proceeding and it is reliably understood that the Swiss Embassy in Colombo is watching the progress.
He explained in detail on how the land transactions had been carried out by several parties illegally transferring the deeds.
He said the land, owned by two Swiss nationals, had been illegally sold by a local party to other local parties from whom the Citrus Leisure subsidiary had bought it.
Swiss nationals Hans–Rudolf Burkhalter and Kurt Stoll during a visit to Sri Lanka in 1979 had purchased four adjacent lots of land alongside the famous Passikudah beach comprising 13 acres from P.R.K. Ellalasingham and his wife E.W. Ellalasingham, on deeds attested by C. Pathmanathan, Notary Public, Colombo.
Mr. Burkhalter was Chief Executive Officer of the famous Swiss company, F. Hoffman-La Roche & Co. Basel, Switzerland, while Mr. Stoll was resident in Hong Kong engaged in precious stones business.
A. Baur & Co. Colombo was the sole agent of F. Hoffman-La Roche & Co. Basel, Switzerland.
Baur & Co. had appointed a caretaker to be in charge of these 13 acres of land bordering the Passikudah Beach, making payments for taxes and collecting the harvest and re-planting coconut, and keeping squatters away from the land.
The caretaker had been on the land up to 2006, when the war broke out in the East.
After the war ended, in October 2009, Arun Tampoe, Attorney-at-Law, had informed the Swiss Embassy and the two Swiss nationals that their land had been fraudulently transferred in 2009.
In such circumstances, Burkhalter and Stoll appointed G.A.R. De A. Abraham of 17A, Skelton Road, Colombo 5 as their Attorney, who was authorized to follow-up all issues and take appropriate legal action.
Abraham had consulted N.R. Sivendran, Attorney-at-Law, to institute civil action and J. Thangavelu, Attorney-at-Law, former DIG-Legal, to take criminal action.
As per the statements made to the Passikudah Police by Abraham, these lands had been fraudulently transferred in August 2009 to one P. Vinayagamoorthi and T. Selvanayagam, on forged deeds in the Tamil language, attested by A.E. Saminathan, Notary Public, Batticaloa, forging the signatures of Burkhalter and Kurt Stoll thereon.
Subsequently in October and November 2009 these lands had been fraudulently transferred to A.U.M. Hakeem through deeds attested by S. Sathasivampillai, Notary Public, Vavuniya. Mr. Hakeem had thereafter in July 2010 entered into sales agreements to sell these lands to G.K. De Silva and M.H.A. Ali, both of whom in November 2010 had registered two caveats in the context of these sales agreements.
G.K. De Silva and M.H.A. Ali had been acting on behalf of Dinesh Fernando of Dian Venture (Pvt) Ltd, 22A, De Saram Road, Mount Lavinia, court documents show.
Dinesh Fernando had become suspicious of the title of A.U.M. Hakeem and had made a complaint to the Kalkudah Police.
On an order made by Magistrate J.A.M.M. Riyal on May 3, 2011, in an application made in MC Valachchenai Case No. 61/PCA/2011 under Section 66 of the Primary Code Procedure, through C.R. de Silva, P.C., former Attorney General, Dinesh Fernando had taken possession of the land.
He had also filed a case in the District Court, Valachchenai, through Ikram Mohamed, P.C., restraining A.U.M. Hakeem from selling the land until the case was concluded.
In the meantime, O.V. Madhura Vidhanage, Deputy Mayor of Kotte, acting through Pinsith Perera, Attorney-at-Law, had purchased these lands from M.H.A. Ali, on Deeds Nos. 1060, 1061 and 1062 attested on June 29, 2011 by A. Uwais, Notary Public, Batticaloa, paying Rs. 60 million for the 13 acres of land.
On the very next day – June 30, 2011 MC Valachchenai Case No. L/137/2011 having been filed, the same Magistrate J.A.M.M. Riyal had made an order within five days on July 5, 2011 granting possession to O.V. Madhura Vidhanage, also under Section 66 of the Primary Code Procedure.
O.V. Madhura Vidhanage, Deputy Mayor of Kotte and a Chief Executive Officer of one of Dilith Jayaweera’s businesses, had been acting on behalf of Dilith Jayaweera, with influential connections in defense circles, Mr. Thangavelu said.
As per statements made to the Kalkudah Police by Dinesh Fernando, O.V. Madhura Vidhanage, along with Vinayagamoorthi Muralitharan alias Karuna Amman now a Deputy Minister and a senior military officer and a contingent of army soldiers had come to the land and had forcibly chased out his caretaker, bulldozing his hut and toilet, removing all debris. The senior officer had also visited the Kalkudah Police and pressurized the Police not to investigate into this matter; Mr. Thangavelu said adding that all these details were in the court proceedings.
Meanwhile, in August and October 2011, caveats were filed in the Land Registry by G.A.R. De A. Abraham, the Attorney of the Swiss Nationals, Burkhalter and Stoll, informing that they were the real owners of the lands, and to prevent the registration of any further fraudulent transfers.
Thereafter notwithstanding the above caveats registered, in November 2011, within a period of four months after O.V. Madhura Vidhanage, Deputy Mayor of Kotte had purchased the said lands for Rs. 60 million, that Dilith Jayaweera’s company, Passikudah Beach Resort Ltd., had purchased the same land on Deed No. 121 attested by Amanthi Jayasinghe, Notary Public, Matugama, paying a staggering amount of Rs. 168.78 million to O.V. Madhura Vidhanage, compared to the price of Rs. 60 million which he had purchased these lands for just four months previously.
The Business Times learns that Citrus Leisure PLC has at various times disclosed to the Colombo Stock Exchange the land transaction and its dispute.
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