Sooriyarachchi released on bail

[TamilNet, Monday, 30 April 2007, 08:33 GMT]
Avissawella High Court Monday allowed the bail application filed by Sripathi Sooriyarachchi, sacked minister of the United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) government and instructed the Kaduwela Magistrate to release him on cash and surety bail. Mr.Nihal Silva, High Court Judge said in his order that no substantial evidence had been submitted to Kaduwela magistrate court under the Section 381 of Criminal Procedure Code (CPC) to remand Mr.Sooriayarachchi, legal sources said.



High Court Judge ordered that Mr.Sooriayarachchi should be released on cash bail of sum of One Hundred Thousand rupees and with two sureties, each signing a bond in a sum of Rupees One Hundred and Thirty Thousand.

Sooriyarachchi was taken into custody when he started claiming, after being sacked from the cabinet, about an alleged secret deal between some members of the Sri Lanka Freedom party (SLFP), main constituent of the UPFA and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam during the last presidential election.

Sooriayarachi was arrested on a charge that he had misused a state vehicle after being dismissed from the minister post.

Since then he was being kept in remand and Kaduwela Magistrate refused his bail application on the ground that his court has no jurisdiction to release the suspect charged under the State Properties Act.

Sooriayarachchi thereafter filed an appeal in the Avissawella High Court challenging the order of the Kaduwela Magistrate stating it was illegal to remand him.

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