By Bhagya Silva
Colombo, Oct. 14 (Daily Mirror) - Fort Magistrate Pasan Amarasena today ordered the Criminal Investigation Department’s (CID) Illegal Assets Investigation Unit to take steps to arrest former Economic Development Minister Basil Rajapaksa and produce him before court over the alleged misappropriation of funds allocated to the Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau.
The Magistrate also directed the authorities to take the necessary steps to obtain an Interpol Red Notice for Rajapaksa.
The order was issued following submissions made by the CID regarding the alleged incident.
The CID’s Illegal Assets Investigation Unit had brought the matter before court over the alleged misuse of Rs. 7.8 million allocated to the Tourism Promotion Bureau in 2014.
According to the allegations, the funds were not used for the bureau’s promotional activities but were instead spent on producing 12,000 T-shirts for the Uva Provincial Council election. The alleged diversion of public funds had caused a loss to the government, the CID informed court.