{"id":4634,"date":"2025-08-24T13:03:36","date_gmt":"2025-08-24T07:33:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ceylondailynews.lk\/home\/?p=4634"},"modified":"2025-08-24T13:13:46","modified_gmt":"2025-08-24T07:43:46","slug":"wasantha-samarasinghe-court-police","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ceylondailynews.lk\/home\/2025\/08\/24\/wasantha-samarasinghe-court-police\/","title":{"rendered":"Court Rebukes Police Over Delays in Case Against Minister Wasantha Samarasinghe"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Mount Lavinia Magistrate slams Colombo Fraud Bureau for premature actions in case involving Trade Minister Wasantha Samarasinghe. Read the latest update.<\/em><\/h3>\n
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Mount Lavinia Magistrate A.D. Chathurika De Silva has strongly criticized officials of the Colombo Fraud Bureau (CFB) for prematurely forwarding extracts of the case involving Trade Minister Wasantha Samarasinghe<\/a> to the Attorney General (AG) before completing their investigation.<\/p>\n

The case concerns a property belonging to the National Workers\u2019 Institute<\/strong>, allegedly leased for Rs. 3.6 million<\/strong> by Minister Samarasinghe and others who reportedly posed as officials of the National Workers\u2019 Congress (NWC)<\/strong> union.<\/p>\n

Magistrate\u2019s Concerns<\/h3>\n

During Friday\u2019s hearing, Magistrate De Silva questioned the police on why the incomplete file had been hastily sent to the AG. She warned that such actions could delay judicial proceedings and stressed that the AG\u2019s advice should only be sought once the investigation is fully concluded.<\/p>\n

The magistrate also inquired about the ownership of the building in question. Police<\/a> confirmed that the property did not belong to Minister Samarasinghe. They added that, in his statement, Samarasinghe claimed he had acted according to a 2020 trade union general meeting decision<\/strong> and that funds from the lease had been used for union-related purposes.<\/p>\n

Progress of the Investigation<\/h3>\n

Police reported that statements had been recorded from all individuals connected to the matter, including:<\/p>\n

    \n
  • \n

    Minister Wasantha Samarasinghe<\/strong> \u2013 on August 21 at the Fraud Bureau.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  • \n

    Deputy Minister Mahinda Jayasinghe<\/strong> \u2013 on August 14.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

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    Kaduwela Mayor Ranjan Jayalal<\/strong> \u2013 on August 14.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    Despite these developments, the aggrieved party\u2019s legal representatives argued that police were attempting to stall the case.<\/p>\n

    Accusations of Delay<\/h3>\n

    Appearing for the complainants, President\u2019s Counsel Maithri Gunaratne, assisted by Attorney-at-Law Kisal Senanayake, accused the CFB of deliberately forwarding the file to the AG to delay proceedings<\/strong>. He argued that police had already admitted in court that a crime had been committed and noted that the court had previously ordered the suspects to be arrested and produced before the bench.<\/p>\n

    Gunaratne further stated that, since a lawful group of union office bearers was already in place, Minister Samarasinghe\u2019s alleged act of fraudulently presenting himself as a union official<\/strong> to lease the building amounted to a serious offense.<\/p>\n

    Next Steps<\/h3>\n

    Magistrate De Silva postponed her ruling on the complainants\u2019 request to name Minister Samarasinghe and others as suspects until September 26<\/strong>. She noted that she will soon be transferred to another court and that her successor will issue the final order.<\/p>\n

    The magistrate also clarified that no external pressure had been applied in relation to the complaint, assuring transparency in the judicial process.<\/p>\n

    FAQs<\/strong><\/h3>\n

    1. What is the case against Minister Wasantha Samarasinghe about?<\/strong>
    The case involves allegations that Minister Wasantha Samarasinghe and others fraudulently leased a building belonging to the National Workers\u2019 Institute for Rs. 3.6 million while posing as officials of the National Workers\u2019 Congress union.<\/p>\n

    2. Why did the court reprimand the police?<\/strong>
    Mount Lavinia Magistrate A.D. Chathurika De Silva reprimanded the Colombo Fraud Bureau (CFB) for forwarding extracts of the case to the Attorney General before completing the investigation, warning it could delay proceedings.<\/p>\n

    3. Has Minister Wasantha Samarasinghe been named as a suspect?<\/strong>
    Not yet. The magistrate postponed the decision on naming Minister Samarasinghe and others as suspects until September 26, when the new magistrate takes over the case.<\/p>\n

    4. What has Minister Samarasinghe said in his defense?<\/strong>
    In his police statement, Minister Samarasinghe claimed that he acted according to a decision taken at the trade union\u2019s general meeting in 2020 and that the money from the lease was used for union activities.<\/p>\n

    5. What happens next in the case?<\/strong>
    The next hearing is scheduled for September 26, where the new magistrate will decide whether Minister Samarasinghe and others should be officially named as suspects in the case.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Mount Lavinia Magistrate slams Colombo Fraud Bureau for premature actions in case involving Trade Minister Wasantha Samarasinghe. Read the latest update. Mount Lavinia Magistrate A.D. Chathurika De Silva has strongly… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4636,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"no","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"twitter_205606689_205606689":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[{"account":"twitter_205606689_205606689","service":"twitter","timestamp":1756020871,"status":"error"},{"account":"twitter_205606689_205606689","service":"twitter","timestamp":1756021484,"status":"error"}],"rop_publish_now_status":"done","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,16,13],"tags":[4636,4645,4642,4639,4638,4641,4637,4643,4644,4640],"class_list":["post-4634","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","category-local-home","category-main-story","tag-samarasinghe","tag-wasantha-samarasinghe","tag-wasantha-samarasinghe-age","tag-wasantha-samarasinghe-official-website","tag-wasantha-samarasinghe-shopping-with-wife","tag-wasantha-samarasinghe-website","tag-wasantha-samarasinghe-wife","tag-wasantha-samarasinghe-wife-youtube","tag-wasantha-samarasinghe-wiki","tag-wasantha-samarasinghe-wikipedia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ceylondailynews.lk\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4634","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ceylondailynews.lk\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ceylondailynews.lk\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ceylondailynews.lk\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ceylondailynews.lk\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4634"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ceylondailynews.lk\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4634\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4635,"href":"https:\/\/ceylondailynews.lk\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4634\/revisions\/4635"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ceylondailynews.lk\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4636"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ceylondailynews.lk\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ceylondailynews.lk\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ceylondailynews.lk\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}