Attorney General files indictments against Tiran Alles and Emil Kanthan

Businessman Tiran Christopher Alles and one time Tiger guerrilla fund raiser Emil Kanthan are among four persons whom the Attorney General has filed indictments before the Colombo High Court for alleged fraud.

Others indicted in the case, due before High Courts on September 24 are Rohan Saliya Abeysinghe Weerawickremasuriya and Jayantha Dias Samarasinghe.

The four suspects will be charged for misappropriation of public funds and criminal breach of trust under the Public Property Act. They are alleged to have conspired to misappropriate state funds amounting to Rs 200 million from the  state backed Reconstruction and Development Agency (RADA). The money to construct 800 housing units in Trincomalee and Batticaloa as part of a project called Jayalanka had been allegedly misappropriated.

The four will also be charged with criminal breach of trust of a sum of Rs 124,837,990.50 (over Rs 124 million) allocated to build 800 housing units in the two districts also as part of the Jayalanka Project. These funds are also alleged to have been misappropriated.

The Attorney General’s Department has recommended the release of four others who had been accused in the case – Shanthi Kumar Gajan Kumar, Anandi Shanthi Kumar, Kandasami Sodiraja and Ponmudi Sri Hara Suthan.

Mr Alles, who obtained Court permission in June to travel to Singapore was detained at the Changi International Airport and questioned for several hours. He was denied entry and Immigration officials there arranged for him to leave in a SriLankan Airlines flight to Colombo.

However, he left again for Singapore this week after a leading cabinet minister intervened on his behalf at the highest levels of the Singapore Government.