The Court of Appeal has scheduled the hearing for former State Minister Lohan Ratwatte's bail petition for November 19.
The petition, which seeks Ratwatte’s release on bail, was reviewed this morning (November 11) by a two-member Appeals Court panel, consisting of Court of Appeal President Nissanka Bandula Karunaratne and Justice Shashi Mahendran.
The judge panel instructed the petitioners to issue notices to the respondents, including the Inspector General of Police, to submit details to the court on the set date. Ratwatte and his wife are currently held in custody until November 18, as ordered by the Nugegoda Magistrate’s Court, following charges related to their alleged use of an illegally imported luxury car assembled in Sri Lanka.
The police discovered the unregistered luxury vehicle during a search at a three-story house in Mirihana, Embuldeniya, which belongs to Shashi Prabha Ratwatte, Lohan Ratwatte’s wife. During questioning, Ratwatte and his wife stated that the property belongs to his mother-in-law and explained that the car had been brought to the location three weeks earlier by Ratwatte’s private secretary, who was recently found dead with gunshot injuries in Kandy’s Katugastota area.
