Magistrate directs CID officer who investigated MiG case to be present in Court at next hearing

Udayanga Weeratunga being escorted by Police to the Court yesterday 

• Two seasoned investigators transferred out of Colombo after Udayanga Weeratunga brought back to Colombo
• Magistrate directs Acting IGP to ensure CI Francis who investigated case for five years is in Court at next hearing
• Defence Counsel alleges evidence against Weeratunga doctored by CID
• State Counsel says newly-assigned CID officers not able to answer queries relating to case
• Weeratunga bail hearing on 25 March

By Chandani Kirinde

Colombo Fort Magistrate Ranga Dissanayake yesterday directed Acting IGP Chandana D. Wickramaratne to ensure that Chief Inspector Nihal Francis who handled the investigations into the MiG aircraft kickbacks case is present in Court when the case is next taken up after counsel for Udayanga Weeratunga alleged that the investigators had doctored evidence against his client.

CID officer Francis, who investigated the case against Weeratunga, Sri Lanka’s one-time Ambassador to Russia for more than five years, was transferred to Negombo and later to Jaffna last month, and new officers were issued to the case but they were unable to answer several of the queries raised by the Magistrate in Court yesterday.

“The Defence Counsel is saying that CI Nihal Francis doctored evidence so it is best that he is present ever so we can question him reading these allegations as well as regarding other investigations into the case,” the Magistrate said.

When proceedings began yesterday, the Magistrate read out a letter sent to him by the Acting IGP in response to a query made by the former as to why the two investigators, namely CI Frances and SP Pavithra Dayaratne, who have been handling the case for many years were not present in Court. The Acting IGP had said in response that even though the two officers are on transfer, they can be asked to appear in court anytime “if a problem arises” regarding this case.

The Magistrate then asked CID officers present of they had recorded a statement from the former Air Force Commander Roshan Gunathilake regarding the claim made in one the ‘B’ report submitted to Court that in July 2006 he had led a delegation to Ukraine and signed the Factory Acceptance Certificate for four of the MiG aircrafts that were to be purchased for the Sri Lanka Air Force. 

However the CID officers said they were unable to answer the query prompting the Magistrate to direct the IGP to ensure that CI Francis is present in Court when the case comes up next as a problematic situation had arisen with regard to getting information about the investigations.

Attorney Asith Siriwardena who appeared for Weeratunga told Court that evidence against his client had been doctored by CI Francis and there was no evidence to show even a cent had come into any of his bank accounts for handling the MiG deal and said that CID investigations had failed to mention in their reports numbering over 1,000 pages that the former Ambassador had not been in Sri Lanka on the date when one of the letters pertaining to this transaction was signed. “When the travel documents are perused, it is obvious my client was not in Sri Lanka on the date mentioned in the ‘B’ report,” he said.

Senior State Counsel Udara Karunatillake however countered this argument saying that nobody was sure where or when the document was signed and the Defence Counsel was going by the date on the said document.

The Defence Counsel also submitted a written bail application on behalf of Weeratunga requesting for bail under “exceptional circumstances”. The bail application will be heard on 25 March.

Weeratunga was brought back to the country from Dubai on 14 February after absconding arrest for more than three years. He is facing charges of money laundering and misappropriation over his alleged involvement in the 2006 purchase of four MiG 27 aircrafts for the Sri Lanka Air Force.