Weeratunga found guilty, sentenced to three years in jail

07 Sep, 2017

Lalith Weeratunga, the secretary to former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, and former Telecom Regulatory Commission Chairman Anusha Pelpita, were today found guilty in the ?sil redi? case.

They were both sentenced to three years in jail by the Colombo High Court, and ordered to pay Rs. 2 million each as a fine and Rs. 50 million each as compensation.

They were accused of misappropriating Rs. 620 million of Government funds to distribute ?sil redi?,?cloth used by Buddhist devotees, to voters during the 2015 Presidential elections.

Transparency International – Sri Lanka (TISL) said that the Colombo High Court verdict on the silredi trial is a major victory in the anti-corruption fight and a significant achievement for TISL and partner election observers.

TISL noted that holding public servants to account is an encouraging intermediary step but holding politicians also to account for corruption must be the goal.?(Colombo Gazette)

Recommended For You

VAT and Telecommunications Levy increased in tax reforms

The Government has decided to increase the Value Added Tax (VAT) from 8% to 12% and the Telecommunications Levy from 11.23% to 15%. The Prime Minister’s Office said that Sri Lanka introduced a low tax regime in late 2019. The reforms included the reduction of tax rates of Value Added Tax, Personal Income Tax (PIT) and Corporate Income Tax (CIT), and narrowing tax bases of VAT and PIT, while introducing a plethora of tax incentives, such as tax exemptions for agriculture and Information Technol

31 May, 2022

Wimal’s wife Sashi Weerawansa granted bail

Parliamentarian Wimal Weerawansa?s wife Shashi Weerawansa, who was sentenced last week to two years in jail, was granted bail today. The Colombo Magistrate?s Court imposed the jail term on the MP?s wife last week after she was found guilty of submitting forged documents to obtain a diplomatic passport. The court also imposed a fine of Rs. 100,000 on Shashi Weerawansa. Lawyers appearing on behalf of Shashi Weerawansa filed an appeal against the ruling. Accordingly, the bail application was ta

31 May, 2022

More diesel arrives from India

More diesel arrived in Sri Lanka from India as part of the assistance offered to Sri Lanka by India. A shipment of 40,000 MT of diesel supplied under Indian assistance reached Colombo last evening, the Indian High Commission in Colombo said today. On 23 May 40,000 MT of petrol arrived in Sri Lanka from India under the credit line from India. Prior to that, a stock of 40,000 MT of diesel also arrived in Sri Lanka from India. Over 400,000 MT of fuel has been delivered to Sri Lanka from India.

31 May, 2022

Colombo Gazette is a leading news and entertainment website, covering stories related to Sri Lanka. The content consists of text based news, photos and videos and is linked to social media websites including Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, to provide a wider coverage for its stories.