Colombo, February 4 (newsin.asia): The owner of Perpetual Treasuries Limited, Arjun Aloysius and its CEO, Kasun Palisena, both kingpins in the LKR 11,450 million Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) bond scam of February 2015, were arrested by the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) on Sunday.
These are the first arrests in the scam.
They were whisked away to the CID headquarters to record statements , the media reported the police spokesman as saying.
They were arrested by CID officers who arrived at their respective residences in Colombo, today.
On Friday, the Colombo Fort Magistrate’s Court named former Central Bank Governor Arjuna Mahendran, his son-in-law Arjun Aloysius and Perpetual Treasuries CEO Kasun Palisena as suspects in the CID’s investigation into the bond scam.
The CID had named Aloysius, Palisena and the then Central Bank Governor Arjuna Mahendran as the prime suspects in the scam. Mahendran is also the father in law of Aloysius.
Aloysius of PTL had made a huge illegal profit as he had inside information thanks to his Governor father in law.
The CID filed its first ‘B Report’ in court over the investigation into the controversial issuance of treasury bonds and cited the aforementioned names as suspects.
The Magistrate had also ordered former CBSL Governor Arjuna Mahendran to appear before the CID and give a statement in connection to the investigation, before February 15. Mahendran being a Singapore national is in Singapore.
The Magistrate also issued an interim order preventing movable and immovable properties of Perpetual Treasuries Limited from being transferred to a third party. The company’s accounts have been frozen temporarily.
Additional Solicitor General Yasantha Kodagoda, appearing on behalf of the Attorney General, presented the report of the Presidential Commission of Inquiry appointed to investigate the Central Bank bond scam to the court.
