Chairman of the Avant Garde Maritime Services Ltd. (AGMS), Nissanka Yapa Senadhipathi has been taken into custody by CID sleuths in the early hours of Thursday (17) when he arrived at the Banadaranaike International Airport.
Senadhipathi had departed from Singapore on flight SQ 468 at around 11.35 pm yesterday.
The Attorney General had directed the Acting IGP to arrest Avant Garde Chairman Nissanka Senadhipathi and seven others and produce them in court in connection with the magisterial inquiry into the Avant Garde floating armoury case at the Galle Magistrate’s Court
The suspects are facing charges under the Firearms Ordinance and Explosives Act. These are in relation to 813 unlicensed automatic weapons and 200,935 live ammunition found aboard ship M.V. Avant Garde.
The others named in the letter sent to the Acting IGP are Major General (Rtd.) Waduge Palitha Piyasiri Fernando, Major General (Rtd.) Karunaratna Banda Adhikari Egodawele, Rtd. Commodore Vishvajith Nandana Diyabalanage, National Police Commission Secretary and Ministry of Defence former Senior Additional Secretary Saman Dissanayake, Rtd. Air Vice Marshall P.B. Premachandra, Ministry of Defence former Senior Additional Secretary D.M.S. Damayanthi Jayaratne and former chairman of Rakna Lanka Victor Samaraweera.
In addition to this, three of the suspects, namely Senadhipathi, Premachandra and Saman Dissanayake stand accused of falsifying evidence for which they face charges under the Penal Code.
The AG said that as the Supreme Court had rejected FR petitions filed by five of the accused, there are no hindrances to arresting them.
In relation to three others, namely Premachandra, Jayaratne and Samaraweera, the AG has instructed that their statements be recorded, named as suspects and produced before the relevant Magistrate.
The AG also instructed to name P.B. Premachandra, Damayanthi Jayaratne and Victor Samaraweera as suspects and to proceed according to the provisions of the Penal Code Ordinance, record their statements and produce them before court as suspects without delay.
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