Wimal’s plea for bail turned down

Says his daughter is suffering from depression Fresh bail application filed

Colombo Fort Magistrate Lanka Jayaratne yesterday refused to release MP Wimal Weerawansa on bail. The bail application said his daughter had been admitted to hospital.

She said the reports submitted to Court were insufficient to clarify the daughter’s health condition.

The bail application stated that she was admitted to hospital because of depression caused by her father’s prolonged stay in remand custody.

Mr. Weerawansa was remanded on charges of distributing 40 state vehicles among his relatives and thus causing a huge loss to the state. Meanwhile, President’s Counsel Shavendra Fernando appearing for UPFA MP Wimal Weerawansa yesterday filed a fresh application seeking bail for the MP under exceptional circumstances.

He said according to the FCID reports the MP had been charged under the Public Property Act on account of aiding and abetting in the allocation of State vehicles and in such cases the principal offender who actually committed the offence should be named.

The counsel said the FCID had failed to do so and as such the law applied in this instance was wrong and said it had conducted an incomplete and partial investigation into the involvement of former deputy minister Lasantha Alagiyawanna and former National Engineering Corporation chairman Arshu Marasinghe against whom there was sufficient evidence to show that they too were involved in allocating the vehicles.he said the suspect being an MP had to represent the views of the people in Parliament and this too had been restricted at a time that the new constitution was under preparation.

The FCID told Court that it expected to complete the extracts of the inquiry to be sent to the AG for his advice. The Magistrate directed the prisons authorities to produce the suspect in Court on April 7 if his health condition was good enough to do so and said he would rule on the suspects bail request on the same day.