The Colombo Fort Magistrate has ruled that the Police can proceed to arrest MP Rishad Bathiudeen and two other suspects, accused of misappropriating public funds during last year’s presidential election, without a warrant.

Thereby, Attorney General Dappula de Livera directed the Police to arrest MP Bathiudeen, Project Director at the Ministry of Resettlement Mohamed Yaseen Samsudeen and the Accountant of the Project Alagarathnam Manoranjan according to the law, the AG’s Coordinating Officer State Counsel Nishara Jayaratne said.

Earlier today, the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), upon the direction of the Attorney General, sought the Colombo Fort Magistrate to issue a warrant to arrest the three suspects on charges of criminal misappropriation of public funds and violation of election laws.

The suspects had allegedly misused 222 buses belonging to the state-owned Sri Lanka Transport Board (SLTB) for transporting internally displaced persons (IDPs) from Puttalam to polling stations in Silavathurai during the 2019 Presidential Election.

The magistrate turned down the CID’s request for a warrant to take the suspects into custody, however, ruled that the arrests can be executed without a warrant.

State Counsel said there is sufficient evidence to claim that the suspects have violated Article 82(1) of Presidential Elections Act, No. 15 of 1981 and misappropriated public funds to the tune of Rs. 9.5 million.

The Attorney General has further instructed the Police to record statements from the suspects and to produced them before courts, the State Counsel added.

The All Ceylon Makkal Congress (ACMC) leader, in April, had filed a Fundamental Rights (FR) petition before the Supreme Court, seeking a court order preventing the CID from placing him under arrest.

Acting IGP C.D. Wickramaratne, the DIG in charge of the CID, the Director of the CID and the Attorney General were named as respondents in the FR petition.

MP Bathiudeen had maintained that he has no connection to the incident in question and that the CID is maliciously attempting to arrest him.