Rishad granted bail

Parliamentarian Rishad Bathiudeen, who was remanded over the alleged misuse of buses belonging to the state-owned Sri Lanka Transport Board (SLTB) during the presidential election last year, has been granted bail.

The case was taken up before Colombo Fort Magistrate’s Court earlier today.

MP Bathudeen is accused of misusing 222 buses owned by the SLTB for transporting internally displaced persons (IDPs) from Puttalam to polling stations in Silavathurai, Mannar during the 2019 Presidential Election, along with the director of the project Mohamed Yaseen Samsudeen and the project accountant Alagarathnam Manoranjan.

They have allegedly violated Article 82(1) of Presidential Elections Act, No. 15 of 1981 by misappropriating public funds to the tune of Rs. 9.5 million.

Last month, the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), upon the direction of the Attorney General, had sought the Colombo Fort Magistrate to issue a warrant to arrest MP Bathiudeen and the other two suspects on charges of criminal misappropriation of public funds and violation of election laws.

However, the magistrate ruled that the Police can proceed to arrest the suspects without a warrant. Thereby, Attorney General Dappula de Livera directed the Police to arrest the three suspects according to the law.

On October 14, the Colombo Fort Magistrate issued a travel ban on the parliamentarian upon a request made by the CID.

MP Bathiudeen was subsequently arrested at a housing complex located at Ebenezer Place in Dehiwala in the early hours of October 19.

He was then produced before the court and placed under remand custody. His bail application was also rejected by the magistrate’s court on several occasions.