News
Wasantha Samarasinghe case: Deputy minister and union leader yet to respond to police
View(s):By Ranjith Padmasiri
Police on Friday informed the Mt. Lavinia Magistrate’s Court that two witnesses, one of whom is a deputy minister in the new government, were yet to give statements over the case involving the new trade minister, Wasanatha Samarasinghe, despite several phone calls and letters.
The Fraud Investigation Bureau is investigating allegations that Trade Minister Wasantha Samarasinghe has used a forged deed to lease out a Dehiwala property with a two-storey building owned by the trade union, the National Workers Institute.
FIB detectives told the court they had given calls and sent letters to Deputy Labour Minister and Ceylon Teachers Service Union General Secretary Mahinda Jayasinghe and Ceylon Electricity Board Workers’ Union General Secretary Ranjan Jayalal, asking them to call over at the FIB to give statements. Their statements were sought because the deed lists them as having leased the land for Rs. 3.6 million. But they had not done so.
The detectives told Acting Magistrate Tharanga Silva that the property had been leased through three tax deeds from February 10, 2020, to Mr. Jayasinghe and Mr. Jayalal by Mr. Samarasinghe and Siril Abayasiri.
Maithri Gunaratne, PC, appearing with Visal Senanayake for the aggrieved party, told the court that the property had been leased out by a person who had no authority within the trade union. The acting magistrate postponed the case till December 20 and ordered police to notify progress in the case on that date.
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