General Ratwatte investigation moves to Kandy

[TamilNet, Monday, 02 September 2002, 18:05 GMT]
The Criminal Investigation Department Monday began investigations against former deputy defence minister General Ratwatte's financial transaction in Kandy following fresh leads. The Kandy Magistrate Mr.N.Seneviratne Monday allowed an application submitted by the CID to examine some safety vaults rented by General Ratwatte and his wife in a private bank located at Katugastota in the hill capital, legal sources said.

Meanwhile the CID is to furnish a detailed report on the investigations conducted so far regarding General Ratwatte's bank dealings to the Colombo Fort magistrate Tuesday.

Three safety deposits vaults rented by General Ratwatte and his wife at two private banks in Colombo were searched last week on warrants issued by the Colombo Fort Magistrate Mr.Priyantha Fernando.

About four hundred millions worth certificates of deposits in the name of General Ratwatte, his wife and his son had been recovered from the safe deposit vaults in Colombo banks, CID sources said.

The CID first launched investigations on August 27 in General Ratwatte's assets on a tip off that the former minister and his wife maintain millions of rupees worth of Certificates of Deposits (CDs) in three vaults at a private bank branch. The CID recovered 31.7 millions worth CDs from the first raid. The CID then obtained a second search warrant from the Fort Magistrate and recovered about 11.6 million rupees worth CDs in other safe deposit vaults.