Court tells to record statement from Gota on Rs. 18 Mn found at President's House

COLOMBO (News 1st) - A Sri Lankan Court ordered detectives to record a statement from Ex-President Gotabaya Rajapaksa on the Rs. 18 Mn recovered from the President's House by protestors on the 9th of July 2022.

Court also ordered detectives to conduct an investigation based on the statement recorded from Rajapaksa.

The Fort Magistrate's Court ordered detectives to record a statement from Ex-President Gotabaya Rajapaksa on the Rs. 18 Mn recovered from the President's House by protestors on the 9th of July 2022.

Court also ordered detectives to conduct an investigation based on the statement recorded from Rajapaksa.

The money was discovered in the bedroom of then-President Gotabaya Rajapaksa at the President's Office.

President's Counsel Rienzie Arsecularatne noted that an investigation is required to determine if the money was a bribe or given for another reason, and based on the submissions Fort Magistrate Thilina Gamage issued the order.

Sri Lanka Police informed the court that the Former President is no longer at his private residence in Mirihana.

The Magistrate ordered the police to visit any other residence of Rajapaksa and record the statement.

Director of the Police Special Investigations Unit SSP D. S. Wickremesinghe told the court that investigations revealed that Senior DIG Deshabandhu Thennakoon had informed Sagara Liyanage, the Fort Police OIC, to hand over the money to the Minister of Public Security.

The Senior Police Officer told the court that an investigation was launched into the said phone conversation as well.

Hundreds of anti-government protesters on July 9 stormed the then president Rajapaksa’s residence in central Colombo’s high-security Fort area after breaking the barricades, as they demanded his resignation over the island nation’s worst economic crisis in recent memory.

Amidst the unprecedented anti-government protests, Rajapaksa fled the country on July 13 to the Maldives and then to Singapore from where he emailed his resignation letter

Rs. 17.8 Million in cash that was found inside the President's House on the 9th of July, and later handed over to the Sri Lanka Police, was produced to the Fort Magistrate's Court as per a court order made on Thursday.