News
Rs 400 mn cheating case: Lawyers question failure of police to seize gem consignment
In a cheating case involving gems valued at Rs 400 million, it has been asked why the Financial and Commercial Crimes Investigations Division, FCCID during five months of investigations did not question or seize the cheated consignment of gems from a Ratnapura-based gem businessman who had allegedly bought, through the complainant’s gem broker, the consignment of gems.
It has transpired that three cheques issued by the Ratnapura-based businessman all of which had got dishonoured, whereas the broker’s father and broker’s wife were slapped with foreign travel restrictions moved by the FCCID unit handling the investigations, according to representations made to FCCID Director Mohan Siriwardena on behalf of the gem broker’s father.
In the representation, dated 19th June 2023, addressed to the Director, FCCID, by President’s Counsel M M Zuhair and Attorney Rizwan Uvais, on behalf of A G M Mafas the aggrieved party, it is alleged that in the case reported to the Magistrate Court, Mount Lavinia, the FCCID had identified the Ratnapura businessman and the complainant’s own gem broker, as the perpetrators of the cheating but the investigating unit had failed to act against the alleged Ratnapura buyer who had not even been named in Court as a suspect, though the Ratnapura buyer had issued three cheques to the complainant, a Colombo gem businessman, through the broker for Rs 97.5 million as part payment and all three cheques had bounced.
President’s Counsel has also questioned as to why the Rs 407 million valued gem consignment, necessary productions in the cheating case, was not promptly seized from the alleged buyer as ‘stolen property’ under section 393 of the Penal Code and produced in Court. He has informed the Director that those handling the virtual complainant’s 14th January 2023 complaint, instead of taking any action against the prime suspects, were harassing the gem broker’s father and the broker’s wife by moving Court for travel restrictions on the father Mafas and the broker’s wife.
He has also represented to the Director FCCID that their officers handling the case having reported to Court that the complainant’s broker had sold the ‘consignment of gems’ and not a part of it, to the Ratnapura buyer and had received the three cheques as ‘a part of the value of the consignment of gems’, were making a preposterous allegation, without any evidence, falsely speculating that Mafaz, who had returned to the island after the complaint, may have taken overseas some gems sold to the Ratnapura buyer.
He has also represented that Mafas is a respected gem businessman for over 40 years, without any complaint and the FCCID’s application for travel restrictions is a violation of his rights protected under Articles 14(1)(g), 12(1) and (2) of the Constitution.
During an operation conducted in the dark hours of 22 Feb 26, the Sri Lanka Navy seized an Indian fishing boat and apprehended twelve (12) Indian fishermen while they were poaching in Sri Lankan waters, in the sea area south of Mannar.
The seized boat and the Indian fishermen were handed over to the Fisheries Inspector of Dikovita for onward legal proceedings.
FSL assures legal backing for them
Families of those sentenced to death by the Three-member Gampaha High Trial-at-Bar, over the killing of SLPP MP Amarakeerthi Atukorale, and his police bodyguard, met a senior official of the Presidential Secretariat, yesterday (23), to seek backing for their move to appeal against the verdict.
Having made representations, they addressed the media, outside the Presidential Secretariat, where they declared their intention to move the higher court against the decision.
The SLPP MP and his security officer were killed by an Aragalaya mob on 09 May, 2022, at Nittambuwa. The same day Aragalaya mobs unleashed violence against the then government MPs across the country, torching dozens of their properties.
The Frontline Socialist Party (FSP) yesterday said that they would help the families of those sentenced to death to move court against the Gampaha High Court Trial-at-Bar decision. Responding to The Island queries, FSP spokesman Pubudu Jayagoda said that their representatives had already met the families and necessary work was being done to move the Supreme Court. Twenty three persons were acquitted and four handed six-month prison terms, suspended for five years
Jayagoda said that one of the HC judges differed in the ruling. Asked whether they received backing from any other political party and groups that had been involved in the 2022 protest campaign to defend those who had been found guilty, Jayagoda said such support was lacking.
The JVP/NPP played a significant role in the violent protest campaign that forced President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to step down. Pointing out that the Attorney General, too, was appealing against the court decision on the basis that the number of persons sentenced to death should be much higher, Jayagoda said that the Nittambuwa incident couldn’t be examined in isolation without taking into consideration the SLPP goon attack on Galle Face protesters on 09 May, 2022. (SF)
Offshore Patrol Vessel P 628 of the Sri Lanka Navy departed Baltimore, USA, for Colombo, on 20 February.
The ex-United States Coast Guard Cutter, USCGC Decisive was officially handed over to the SLN on 02 December, 2025, as the latest addition to the SLN fleet, under the Pennant Number P 628.
Measuring 64 metres in length, this ‘B-Type Reliance Class 210-foot Cutter’ is equipped with advanced technological systems and facilities, capable of conducting extensive surveillance operations spanning up to 6,000 nautical miles per patrol.
The vessel’s voyage to Colombo is historic, possibly marking the longest-ever passage undertaken by a Sri Lanka Navy ship. Covering approximately 14,775 nautical miles, the journey will see the P 628 navigate from Baltimore through the Atlantic Ocean, the Panama Canal (a first for a Sri Lankan naval vessel), the Pacific Ocean, and into the Indian Ocean, via the Straits of Malacca. The ship is expected to arrive in Sri Lanka during the first week of May, 2026.
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Navy seize an Indian fishing boat poaching in Mannar seas
Fair weather will prevail except for showers in the Southern province and in Rathnapura, Monaragala and Kaluthara districts after 2.00 p.m
Families of those sentenced to death for killing MP Atukorale seek AKD’s intervention
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