Billions scam under Bathiudeen?

Rishad Bathiudeen

The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) has seized 67 files containing valuable information on billions of rupees worth of controversial Sathosa transactions, allegedly carried out by former Minister Rishad Bathiudeen, during the previous Government’s tenure, from a private residence, a topmost Police official said yesterday.

He said the files were recovered during a lightning raid carried out by a team of CID officials in a private residence in Colombo on Friday.

The files contained details on the controversial imports of large stocks of rice during the period 2016-2017, the questionable purchases of power generators, as well as a large number of land deeds involving hundreds of acres of lands purchased under the names of various persons, he added.

The officials said that the files should have been placed in the custody of Sathosa, instead of being stashed away in a private residence, leading to suspicion that there were many irregularities that took place during the tenure of the previous government involving billions of rupees and an attempted cover-up.

Two special Police teams have been deployed to carry out further investigations, under the supervision of Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Nuwan Wedasinghe.

(Source: Ceylon Today)