The second accused in the case of forging accounts at Singalanka Standard Chemicals, a stock market listed company, has pleaded guilty while the main accused, former chairman of the company Ratnaraja Navaratnam was absent and unrepresented in the Colombo Fort Magistrate's Court recently.
Mr Navaratnam is a well known businessman from the family that owns Rio Cinema and has a stake in Apollo Hospital. In a press release, the Securities and Exchange Commission of Sri Lanka (SEC) said it had instituted action in the Magistrate's Court against the former Chairman and a key employee of on 15 counts for conspiracy and for submitting the audited financial statements to the Colombo Stock Exchange on the forged signatures of the Auditors for the financial years ended March 31, 2002 through to 2007.
When the matter was taken up in court, the second accused Kanepathipillai Ketheeshwaran pleaded guilty to five counts after which the court imposed a fine of Rs. 50,000 on each of the four counts and a jail term of six months suspended for a period of five years on the fifth count and issued summons against the first accused for October 28, the SEC press release said. |
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