Ananda Palitha, trade unionist who was arrested over controversial statements made on the country’s fuel stocks, has been granted bail.
The order was issued when he was produced before the Colombo Additional Magistrate’s Court today (August 22).
Chairman of the Petroleum Corporation National Employees Union Ananda Palitha was arrested yesterday (August 21) by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) for questioning over the controversial statements that there is a fuel shortage in the country.
Speaking at a press conference on August 19, Ananda Palitha had stated that the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) has only 65,000 metric tons of diesel and 32,000 metric tons of petrol, which would be sufficient only for a short period of 11 days.
However, investigations carried out by the CID revealed that the CPC had 71,000 metric tons of petrol and 99,000 metric tons of diesel as of August 19. Further, the CID also revealed that there are diesel and petrol produced daily by the Sapugaskanda Oil Refinery and that orders have been placed for the importation of petroleum until September.
Accordingly, Ananda Palitha was arrested by the CID on charges of spreading false information before the media.
