Fort Magistrate refuses to issue arrest warrant on Rishad
October 13, 2020 03:38 pm
The Colombo Fort Magistrate has refused to issue a warrant for the arrest of MP Rishad Bathiudeen and two others.
Earlier today, the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) sought the Colombo Fort Magistrate to issue an arrest warrant on the parliamentarian on charges of criminal misappropriation of public funds and violation of election laws.
The Attorney General had directed the Acting Inspector General of Police (IGP) to obtain an arrest warrant on MP Bathiudeen.
However, the case has been scheduled to be taken up again on the 27th of October.
He is accused of using 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 All Ceylon Makkal Congress (ACMC) leader, in April, filed a Fundamental Rights (FR) petition before the Supreme Court, seeking a court order preventing his arrest by the Criminal Investigations Department (CID).
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.
