News
Police find over Rs. 100mn in the bank accounts of 11 suspects
Online sex trafficking ring using an under-aged girl:
Police investigators probing the online sex trafficking ring using an under-aged girl have found more than Rs. 100 million deposited in the bank accounts of 11 suspects who were among those arrested so far in this connection.
Sleuths from the specialized unit tasked to probe illegal assets have discovered Rs. 50 million in the bank account of the leader of the sex ring. In addition, he had US$ 12,199 in two fixed deposits.
Police said the bank accounts have now been frozen on a judicial directive.
The owner of the website ‘lankaad.com’ and its finance manager, who published online advertisements to sell the 15-year-old girl to clients, were arrested by the CID and are now in remand custody. They are residents of Panadura and Bandaragama respectively.
The finance manager of the website had deposited Rs. 7 million into his bank account, while more than Rs. 20 million was found in the bank account of the main suspect accused of selling the girl to various people. He is a resident of Laxapathiya, Moratuwa, police investigations revealed.
In addition, an examination of the bank accounts of a woman named ‘Matilda’, who was identified as the mistress of the suspect, revealed that more than Rs. 10 million had been deposited, while another woman also believed to have been involved in selling the under-age girl had several lakhs of rupees in her bank account.
All the suspects have now been remanded.
Police investigations also revealed that the owner of the web portal worked as a computer engineer drawing a monthly salary of Rs. 300,000 in a private company. However, after he started the ‘lankaad.com’ website, his income had shot up to Rs. 4.5 million per month.
It also come to light that the suspect’s website hosted around 21,000 advertisements per day and so far this year, he had earned around Rs. 30 million as advertising revenue.
Police also found that the suspect was planning to leave for Australia.
Accepting deposits from political parties and independent groups who intend to contest the forthcoming Local Authorities Election ended at 12noon today [19].
Deposits were accepted at respective District Secretariats from 3rd March 2025.
The Elections Commission has announced that the deadline for the accepting of nominations for the LA poll is set to conclude at 12:00 noon tomorrow (20).
It has been reported that the former Inspector General of Police (IGP) Deshabandu Tennakoon has appeared before the Matara Magistrate’s Court this morning (19),
The former IGP had been evading arrest after the Matara Magistrate’s court had ordered his arrest regarding a shooting incident that took place in front of the W15 Hotel Pelena, Weligama, Matara, in 2023.
The government has begun recovering funds obtained by former Lands and Land Development, Environment and Wildlife Resources Minister SM Chandrasena for the Janatha Lanka Chilli Marketing Limited (JLCML), which he headed, Parliament was informed yesterday.
Agriculture, Livestock, Land, and Irrigation Minister Namal Karunaratne said that as the Chairman of JLCML, Chandrasena had obtained a loan of Rs. 1,275,000 from the Mihintale Govijana Seva Bank in 2001.
The principal of the loan had not been repaid until the end of last year. “After we came to power, we demanded that the loan be settled. Then, we discovered that the interest on the loan had not been paid for the past 24 years, and attempts had been made to have the loan written off. We stopped that and are now in the process of recovering the interest of Rs. 1,975,233 on the loan,” Karunaratne said.
Karunaratne added that JLCML was registered as a company with the Registrar of Companies on March 21, 2001. As Chairman of the company, Chandrasena requested a loan of Rs. 10 million on April 19, 2001, for the purpose of purchasing chillies from farmers in 12 farmer colonies in the Mihintale Agrarian Service area.
The request was approved by the Mihintale Agrarian Service Committee on the same day and referred to the Anuradhapura District Agrarian Operations Committee, which approved it on April 23, 2001. However, the Agriculture Development Commissioner General recommended that a loan of Rs. 1.2 million would suffice for this purpose. JLCML took the loan and failed to repay it until the end of last year. When the matter was raised, the principal was paid, and we are now in the process of recovering the interest that was not paid for the past 24 years,” Karunaratne added.
By Saman Indrajith
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