Officers of the Illegal Assets Investigation Division of the Criminal Investigation has unearthed information that the woman arrested on Monday (21) for large scale financial fraud in Galle had also engaged in a racket of importing and distributing expensive foreign liquor under the guise of re-exporting them.
Illegal Assets Investigation Division officers have started an investigation in this regard and it appears that she has received the support of corrupt Customs officers in this racket, sources said.
Officers who identifies one such Customs officer had questioned him. There he has said that he had given money to the woman and she had cheated him.
But investigations have revealed that the Customs officer had not complained about it to Police. An analysis of the telephone data has revealed that there was continuous contact between the said Customs officer and the woman.This woman has taken money from many people saying that she will invest the money in a business of importing and selling liquor. Investigators have found that she brought container loads of liquor from foreign containers under the guise of re-exporting them.
In the past, there was a racket of bringing expensive alcohol from European countries under the guise of re-exporting to Maldives, and then placing those containers in warehouses inside the country, breaking the customs seal there, removing the alcohol and then filling water bottles instead, and again fraudulently placing the customs seal and shipping those containers to Maldives.
Police and Customs were able to bust this racket. The Illegal Assets Investigation Division states that this woman is also suspected to have carried out this kind of smuggling and a comprehensive investigation is being conducted in this regard.
From the year 2019 to the year 2023 for more than four years, it has been revealed in the investigation that she has taken money from hundreds of thousands of people as investments and defrauded millions. A senior Police officer said that it appears that the woman named Nirosha Nishanthi had people in and around Galle and there are complaints against her in many Police stations in the South.
The officer said that investigations have revealed that this woman is living a luxurious life by spending the money collected as investments and has bought many properties.
This woman was presented at the Galle Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday (22). She was released on bail with a surety of Rs.50 million after being produced before Galle Chief Magistrate Isuru Nettikumara.
Gayan Kumara Weerasinghe