Bribery charges: Ratwatte cleared

Chaminda Perera and Shiromi Abeysinghe

Colombo High Court Judge Deepali Wijesundera yesterday freed former Deputy Defence Minister General Anuruddha Ratwatte of bribery charges levelled against him by the Commission Investigating Bribery or Corruption.

The Commission indicted Ratwatte with amassing properties worth over Rs.46 million and deposits worth Rs.35 million which could not have been accumulated through his declared assets.

The Court after considering the objections by Defence Counsel Rienzie Arsakularatne following the cross examination of 25 prosecution witnesses decided that it had no jurisdiction to proceed with the case.

The High Court Judge in her judgement says the Commission had not apprised the Court that the clarification by the accused in reply to the notice issued by the Commission has not been rejected and Commission has failed to append the relevant document with the indictment. Evidence to this effect has not been furnished before the court.

The Defence Counsel in raising preliminary objections stated that as per the 23rd clause of the Bribery Act Court had no jurisdiction to proceed with the case.

Counsel appearing for the Commission stated it rejected the accused’s response and therefore it did not append it with the indictment.

The Defence counsel stated he expected evidence or a document will come up during the cross examination of prosecution witnesses to this effect.

He stated this has attributed him to raise preliminary objections after the cross examination of complainants is over.

The counsel for accused in his objections stated the Commission had failed to explain the charges against the accused though he had sent his reply to the commission. He stated his client did not have enough time to file his objections.

The Commission had not fulfilled the basic criteria in filing indictments against the accused and therefore the accused cannot be made guilty, the Counsel said.