AG orders immediate arrest of Avant-Garde chairman & 7 others
Posted on July 5th, 2019

Courtesy Adaderana

The Attorney General has informed the Acting Inspector General of Police to immediately arrest the Chairman of Avant-Garde Maritime Services (Pvt) Ltd Nissanka Senadhipathi and 7 others, the Attorney General’s Department said.

However, the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) has informed the Attorney General’s Department that Mr Nissanka Senadhipathi has left the country, according to the Coordinating Officer to the Attorney General, State Counsel Nishara Jayaratne. He has reportedly traveled to Singapore.

The following suspects are to be arrested:

  1. Major General (Rtd.) Waduge Palitha Piyasiri Fernando 
  2. Major General (Rtd.) Karunaratna Banda Adhikari Egodawele
  3. Yapa Hetti Pathirannehelage Nissanka Yapa Senadhipathi – Avant-Garde, Chairman
  4. Rtd. Commodore Vishvajith Nandana Diyabalanage
  5. Dissanayake Mudiyanselage Saman Dissanayake – Secretary, National Police Commission/Former Senior Additional Secretary, Ministry of Defence
  6. Rtd. Air Vice Marshall P.B. Premachandra
  7. D.M.S. Damayanthi Jayaratne – Former Senior Additional Secretary, Ministry of Defence
  8. Victor Samaraweera – Chairman, Rakna Lanka

In his letter to the Acting IGP, the Attorney General states that the Supreme Court yesterday (4) rejected the Fundamental Rights petitions filed by five of the suspects against their arrest.

However, before the Supreme Court announced its decision on the petitions yesterday the CID had informed the AG that Nissanka Senadhipathi and Vishvajith Nandana Diyabalanage have left the country.

Accordingly the AG informed the Acting IGP that there is no legal obstacle to immediately arrest the aforementioned suspects and produce them before court.

The AG also instructs to name P.B. Premachandra, Damayanthi Jayaratne and Victor Samaraweera as suspects, proceed according to the provisions of the Penal Code Ordinance, record their statements and produce them before court as suspects without delay.

The AG also instructs to report the progress with regard to this before July 08, 2019.

5 Responses to “AG orders immediate arrest of Avant-Garde chairman & 7 others”

  1. Dilrook Says:

    All big shot suspects leave the country when faced with court cases. Singapore seems to be a popular place for them.

    Court cases must proceed in absentia and frame them for their crimes.

  2. Vaisrawana Says:

    Desperate Times Call for Desperate Measures! Yahapalane possessed by Gota bhaya.

  3. Vaisrawana Says:

    But we the ordinary Sri Lankans need not fear. There is irrefutable evidence that though the legislative and the executive branches have almost been severed, the judicial branch remains intact. That is reason for some consolation.

  4. Ananda-USA Says:

    What exactly are the CRIMES committed by these arrestees?

    As I recall, Avant-Garde was createdto facilitate weapons purchases for the Sri Lanka Defence forces during the war against LTTE terrorists and the tenure of Gotabhaya Rajapaksa as Defence Secretary, when many countries supporting the Tamil Diaspora had blacklisted Sri Lanka to inhibit our weapons purchases.

    Did these accused STEAL money from Avant-Garde and ENRICH themselves personally? Did they VIOLATE any laws that existed at that time and ACT without getting permission from the then government?

    If NOT, is this a YAMAPALANAYA attempt to prevent the candidacy of Gotabhaya Rajapaksa as President, by threatening these people with punishment to extract FALSE EVIDENCE against Gota? It CERTAINLY SEEMS SO to me!

    Can someone clarify the actual situation with FACTUAL information?

  5. Dilrook Says:

    Sea marshaling operations were traditionally done by the navy. For obvious reasons it was not doing well during the war (as commercial ships didn’t want to be seen with one party to the war) for any Lankan operator.

    After the war it became very lucrative. Instead of allowing the navy to do it, a new private company (owned by the navy) was formed to do it. That private company had far more lucrative pay scales, perks, own employees who were not active navy personnel, easy procurement processes than the navy and bypassed the navy. This deprived the navy billions of rupees. Although it was consolidated with the navy’s books, the book entries were not backed by sufficient cash dividend to the navy. As with all companies, it had its own bank account!

    Similar things happened with Lanka Logistics and Rakna Lanka. Lanka Logistics deprived the army billions of rupees and bypassed army procurement guidelines. However, Rakna Lanka didn’t. The army never went into that business and it is not within the Army Act. That was a very good thing.

    There are other allegations that Avant Guarde was gun-running which if proven is equal to international terrorism. However, in my opinion that was a politically motivated false allegation. That part is untrue as far as I know.

    The accused political camp deliberately mixes up matters to hide the fraud by claiming the government does not understand sea marshaling. That is nonsense. It was always done by the navy and only the navy should do it. Not any private company with own director board, employees, perks, bank accounts (high emphasis), etc.

    However, all the top accused have done a Arjun Mahendran and are hiding in Singapore so not to worry, nothing will happen. Ultimately it is navy and the nation that were deprived, not politicians.

Leave a Reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

 

 


Copyright © 2024 LankaWeb.com. All Rights Reserved. Powered by Wordpress