VAT fraud case put off for September 17

The VAT fraud case, filed in connection with Sri Lanka’s biggest ever tax fraud, was postponed for September 17. On that date the witness number six, a CID officer, will give evidence.

Meanwhile, the Colombo High Court Judge Kumuduni Wickremasinghe allowed a request made by two aggrieved parties Shirani Anoma Dullewa and Upendra Wettasinghe Dullewa. Their counsel informed Court that the money they earned from overseas had been deposited in treasury bills with the approval of Central Bank and the relevant documents pertaining to the deposited money were taken into CID custody. The counsel said these documents were not relevant to the VAT fraud case and alleged that the CID might have mixed it up with the VAT case documents.

He said that an order be issued to check whether his client’s document had been mixed up with the documents of the VAT case. The HC Judge directed that the relevant documents be checked to determine whether it was so.

In the VAT case 14 accused were indicted in the Colombo HC on 34 charg- es including the misappropriation of public funds amounting to Rs.3,996,008,151 belonging to Inland Revenue Department. The offences were said to have been committed between November 15, 2002 and December 15, 2004.

The accused A. Gunasiri de Soyza Jayatillake and Ananda Wickremesinghe Ambepitiya of the Inland Revenue Department and 12 businessmen -Rasheed Mohamed Murshida, Bakeer Mohamed Riyaz, Mohamed Zubair Fawzil Amami, M. Ameer Irshad, N.A. Mohamed Nasmi, Mohamed Kamil Kuthubdeen, Abdul Mohamed Saafi, Sinnaiah Subramaniyam, Salawudeen Mohamed Ashraff, Mohamed Caseem Shafik, Mohamed Ismail Riswin and Sahabdeen Abdullah were indicted on the charge of having misappropriated the mentioned public funds of some Rs.3.9 billion belonging to IRD.