The Colombo Permanent High Court Trial-at-Bar has rejected the bail applications filed by former ministers Mahindananda Aluthgamage and Nalin Fernando, who were recently sentenced to imprisonment in the carrom board case.
The Colombo Permanent High Court Trial-at-Bar has rejected the bail applications filed by former ministers Mahindananda Aluthgamage and Nalin Fernando, who were recently sentenced to imprisonment in the carrom board case.
The order was delivered by a three-judge bench comprising Priyantha Liyanage, Viraj Weerasuriya, and P.M.T. Bandara.
Announcing the decision, the bench stated that a defendant convicted by a court must present specific and substantive grounds in a bail application pending an appeal. However, the judges ruled that the reasons submitted by the defendants were not sufficiently specific to justify granting bail and therefore ordered the rejection of their applications.
The Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption (CIABOC) filed the case against the two former ministers, accusing them of causing a loss of approximately Rs. 53 million to the government by importing 14,000 carrom boards and 11,000 dam boards through Sathosa. The equipment was allegedly distributed to political offices supporting then-presidential candidate Mahinda Rajapaksa during the 2015 presidential election.
After a lengthy trial, the Colombo High Court sentenced Mahindananda Aluthgamage to 20 years of rigorous imprisonment and Nalin Fernando to 25 years of rigorous imprisonment.
Both defendants have since appealed to the Supreme Court through their legal representatives, seeking to overturn the convictions.
