Anura Bandaranaike's testamentary case today

Sandasen Marasinghe

The testamentary application filed on the heir to the property of late Anura Bandaranaike stating that the intestate heirs to his property were former President Chandrika Bandaranaike and her sister Sunethra Bandaranaike will be taken up before the Colombo District Court today.

Three close associates of late Anura Bandaranaike who filed separate objections against the testamentary application stating that they were given a part of his property by means of a Last Will have submitted a list of witnesses of 190 persons.

Those three intervening petitioners S. D. Reni Derwin Saparamadu of USA, W. K. D. Senarath Chandrasinghe of Kirillawela and S. A. Wasantha Samarasekara of Nittambuwa have included Minister Chamal Rajapaksa, Minister Dullas Alahapperuma, Minister Maithreepala Sirisena, Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva, Minister Anura Priyadarshana Yapa, Minister Mervin Silva, Parliamentarian Basil Rajapaksa and editors of several newspapers as witnesses.

They have also enlisted Attorney Scott W. Wellman of USA in the list of the witnesses to whom they alleged that Anura Bandaranaike handed over his Last Will in 1996. They alleged that Anura Bandaranaike had left a Last Will under registration No. 1286 through which he granted his property to the Anura Bandaranaike Foundation and to some of his close friends.

The intervening petitioners on an earlier date pleaded to quash the application filed by Sunethra Bandaranaike. Sunethra Bandaranaike in January 2009 filing a plaint before the Colombo District Court stated although it had been stated in the media that Anura Bandaranaike had died leaving a Last Will, no proceedings had been commenced before Court to prove any Last Will executed by the deceased.

She claimed that she (petitioner) and her sister Chandrika Bandaranaike, the respondent of this application, were intestate heirs of the property of the deceased.