Top athletes in visa racket further remanded

Sarath Malalasekera

The ten suspects, which included leading athletes in the visa racket case, were further remanded till January 27 by the Colombo Fort Magistrate and Additional District Judge Gihan Pilapitiya.

Earlier the Colombo Crime Division (CCD) probing the visa racket told Court that they have forwarded the dossier of the investigations into the visa racket to the Attorney General for his advice. Inspector Rajappakse of the CCD told court that the investigators had to record several statements from the officers of the Immigration and Emigration Department in connection with their investigations.

The ten suspects in the case are Amith Dhammika Jayasekera, S.A. Nihal Jayantha, J. Fernando, Mustafa Mohamed Faizer, Ranga Kumara Wimalasena, K.B.D. Prasanna, Chaminda Jayantha, Lalani Irangikai, Geetha Dharsha and Prasanna Sampath Amerasekera. They have allegedly prepared forged Marriage certificates and obtained visas from an Embassy in Colombo for a Muslim person and a Tamil person seeking migration to the UK.

"We are also looking for a very senior sportswoman who has allegedly been involved in this massive visa racket, CCD Director Senior SP Anura Senanayake said.

Earlier the CCD arrested the kingpin of the visa racket and had been remanded pending the completion of ongoing investigations, the CCD Director said.

This key suspect now in custody has been carrying on this racket with the help of leading personalities in society, CCD officials said. Investigations also revealed that only the bridegroom had left the country on the visas obtained on forged documents but not the brides, CCD Director Senior SP Senanayake said.

The case will be called on January 27.