Court orders Rishad Bathiudeen to appear before CID over Easter Sunday attacks probe

Fort Magistrate has ordered former Minister Rishad Bathiudeen to appear before the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) on July 27 at 9.00 am to record a statement over Easter Sunday attacks last year.

The court order came in the wake of Election Commission (EC) writing to the Acting Inspector General of Police (IGP) last week urging him to defer ongoing fresh CID probe on former Minister Rishad Bathiudeen over Easter Sunday attacks until the elections are over by August 10.

The three-member commission, after having considered the complaint lodged by Mr Bathiudeen alleging that CID has repeadtedly asked him to appear before police disrupting his election campaign activities, decided unanimously to urge the acting IGP to defer the probe against the former minister.

In his complaint to Election Commission, Mr Bathiudeen alleged that he had already given evidence before the Parliamentary Select Committee on matters related to Easter Sunday attacks and its final report declared that the investigations carried out by them "did not reveal any connection of Mr Rishad Bathiudeen either with the attack that took place on 21/4/2019 or with any terrorist activities,"