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Thursday Nov 28, 2024
Wednesday, 2 January 2019 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
By Manopriya Gunasekera
Perpetual Treasuries Ltd. (PTL) owner Arjun Aloysius and CEO Kasun Palisena were released on bail yesterday after being remanded for over ten months for being linked to the Central Bank bond scam.
They were ordered to be released on exceptional bail by Colombo Chief Magistrate Lanka Jayaratne.They were released under Rs. 1 million cash bail, and four sureties of Rs.2 million for each suspect with a travel ban. They were also ordered to report to the CID every Sunday.
Before ordering bail, the Magistrate had noted that since there was no indication of when the chief suspect of the case, former Central Bank Governor Arjuna Mahendran, would be apprehended, it was not acceptable for Aloysius and Palisena to be kept in remand any longer.
The Court had ordered bail after accepting representations made by the lawyers representing the two suspects that their absence had created much mental and physical hardship for their wives and children.
Aloysius and Palisena were arrested in February 2018 after the CID submitted their ‘B’ report,which made Arjun Aloysius liable for ‘conspiring’ to commit the two offences of Criminal Breach of Trust and Criminal Misappropriation with Arjuna Mahendran at the bond auction on 27 February 2015 under Section 113(a), 386, 39 and 391 of the Penal Code and the Section 5(1) of the Public Property Act.
The CID also made Arjun Aloysius and CEO Kasun Palisena liable in the bond issue under the offence of ‘Abetment’ Section 102 of the Penal Code.
Perpetual Treasuries Ltd. were also made liable by the CID for engaging in illegal ‘insider dealing’ by obtaining price-sensitive inside information, which is deemed to be a punishable and prohibited conduct under Section 56 (1) of the Registered Stocks and Securities Ordinance and the Code of Conduct for Primary Dealers by the Central Bank of Sri Lanka.
