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| Friday, 25 June 2004 |
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'Obtaining passports by misleading Immigration and Emigration Dept. not valid' by Sarath Malalasekera The Immigration and Emigration Section at the Bandaranaike International Airport is having sophisticated equipment and ultraviolet scan to detect forged passports, said Kulasiri Fernando, a former Assistant Controller of the Immigration and Emigration Department. Giving evidence before the Colombo Chief Magistrate and Additional District Judge Sarojini Kusala Weerawardena in the Thilanga Sumathipala case yesterday, he said he had left the Immigration and Emigration Department on November 1, 2002 and joined the Sri Lanka Women's Bureau. He made a statement to the CID and placed his signature on the documents shown to him by the CID. Re-examined by Senior State Counsel Yasantha Kodagoda, witness Fernando, said that a birth certificate is a very vital document to issue a passport. Obtaining passports by misleading any officers of the Immigration and Emigration Department are not valid, he said. Cross examined by President's Counsel Gamini Marapana, senior counsel for Sumathipala, witness Fernando said a passport is issued only to Sri Lankans under the Immigration and Emigration Act. Cross examined at length on the procedure of filling the application form to obtain a passport, the witness said that it should be filled by the applicant's own handwriting. All particulars in a passport are fed into the computer and the persons who are in-charge of the computer used to place his signature on the documents of the passport, the witness said. Several people used to obtain passports using forged documents. But passports issued under the signature of the Controller of Immigration and Emigration is valid, he added. The embarkation and disembarkation forms should be filled by the passport holder and those forms are retained by the Immigration and Emigration authorities at the Airport. Sri Lanka Telecom Chairman and former Sri Lanka Cricket President Thilanga Sumathipala is charged under the Immigration and Emigration Act, for aiding and abetting an underworld gang leader, Dhammika Perera alias Dhammika Amarasinghe to travel to England to witness the World Cup Cricket in 1999 on a forged passport. The offence had been committed between April 1, 1999 and June 15, 1999. Earlier Sumathipala pleaded not guilty to the charges read out to him. Senior State Counsel Vjith Malalgoda, Senior State Counsel Yasantha Kodagoda, Senior State Counsel Priyantha Nawanna, State Counsel Amendra Seneviratne, State Counsel Damith Totawatta and Prosecuting Attorney Rohan Jayasundera appeared for the Attorney General with the CID. President's Counsel Gamini Marapana, Rienzie Arasacularatne PC, Dr. Harsha Cabral, Navin Marapana, Ranjan Srikantha, Wasantha Batagoda and Priyantha Upali Amarasinghe appeared for Thilanga Sumathipala. The proceedings were adjourned until July 1 at 2 p.m. |
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