{"id":125990,"date":"2022-06-06T16:36:09","date_gmt":"2022-06-06T23:36:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=125990"},"modified":"2022-06-06T16:36:09","modified_gmt":"2022-06-06T23:36:09","slug":"minister-prasanna-ranatunga-given-two-year-suspended-jail-sentence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2022\/06\/06\/minister-prasanna-ranatunga-given-two-year-suspended-jail-sentence\/","title":{"rendered":"Minister Prasanna Ranatunga given two-year suspended jail sentence"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em>Courtesy Adaderana<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n<p>Minister Prasanna Ranatunga has been sentenced to two years rigorous imprisonment suspended for a period of five years by the Colombo High Court in the case filed against him over the Meethotamulla land dispute.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"\u0d87\u0db8\u0dad\u0dd2 \u0db4\u0dca\u200d\u0dbb\u0dc3\u0db1\u0dca\u0db1 \u0dc0\u0dd0\u0dbb\u0daf\u0dd2\u0d9a\u0dbb\u0dd4 \u0d9a\u0dc5 \u0db1\u0da9\u0dd4\u0dc0...\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/eLuFjd1hM1A?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Meanwhile the minister was also imposed a fine of Rs. 25 million by the Colombo High Court, which laos ordered that failure to pay the fine carries an additional nine months imprisonment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In addition, the court further ordered Minister Ranatunga to pay a compensation of Rs. 1 million to the accuser, a businessman, and declared that if he fails to pay the compensation, he will be sentenced to an additional three months imprisonment.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Meanwhile two other accused in the case including the minister\u2019s wife Morin Ranatunga and another individual were acquitted from the case by the court.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Attorney General had filed an indictment against the former Western Province Chief Minister before the Colombo High Court in May 2016, accusing him of threatening a businessman in connection with the transactions of a land in Meethotamulla of 322 perches.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ranatunga, who is the incumbent Minister of Urban Development and Housing, was accused of threatening a businessman named Gerard Mendis and demanding Rs. 64 million to evict unauthorized occupants of a land in the Meethotamulla area in Kolonnawa and to refill the land, during his tenure as Chief Minister.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The verdict in the case was delivered by Colombo High Court Judge Manjula Tillakaratne, today (06).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Courtesy Adaderana Minister Prasanna Ranatunga has been sentenced to two years rigorous imprisonment suspended for a period of five years by the Colombo High Court in the case filed against him over the Meethotamulla land dispute.&nbsp; Meanwhile the minister was also imposed a fine of Rs. 25 million by the Colombo High Court, which laos [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[156],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-125990","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-law-order"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125990","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=125990"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125990\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=125990"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=125990"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=125990"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}