Bail application of HICORP Director :

Order reserved for Jan 20

Sarath MALALASEKERA

The Colombo Fort Magistrate and Additional District Judge Ms. Lanka Jayaratne yesterday reserved order for January 20 in respect of a bail application submitted to court on behalf of Trenton Dehoed, a director of HICORP (Pvt) Limited, who had been remanded in connection with an alleged arms deal.

At the outset Asoka Weerasooriya, senior counsel for the suspect director moving for bail submitted that the CID had submitted a confidential report to court which is not valid in law.

Citing several authorities Senior Defence Counsel Weerasooriya said that there is no provisions in law to forward a confendential report to court in respect of a suspect.

The CID also had not submitted a comprehensive report in connection with the forged documents which is alleged to have been forwarded by the suspect director in respect of an arms deal, Senior Defence Counsel said.

CID Chief Inspector Mohan Siriwardena who appeared for the prosecution vehemently objected the suspect director being released on bail.

The CID said that the investigations into the alleged arms deal had not been completed. Chief Inspector Siriwardena also said that the suspect director had forwarded several forged documents to the Army authorities in order to obtain the contract to his company. The CID will submit a comprehensive report in connection with their ongoing investigations to court on the next date.

Senior Defence Counsel Asoka Weerasooriya with Priyaranjana Jayasinghe, Rohitha Rajapaksa, Kingsley Hettiarachi and Ajith Perera instructed by Siraz Noordeen appeared for the suspect director. The case will be called again on January 20.