Hicorp director further remanded

Sarath MALALASEKERA

The Colombo Fort Magistrate and Additional District Judge Lanka Jayaratne yesterday remanded suspect Wellington Dehoedt, a director of HICROP (Pvt) Limited till May 12 .

After lengthy submissions by Senior Defence Counsel Sarath Siriwardena, the Judge reserved the order on the bail application in respect of the suspect till the next date.

At the outset Senior Defence Counsel Siriwardena submitted to court that the investigators had failed to mention the amount that the suspect is alleged to have misappropriated by tendering forged documents to the Army to obtain a tender for his company.

Senior Defence Counsel Siriwardena said that the amount alleged to have been involved in the transaction should be mentioned in the report filed before court by the investigators.

This is vital for the defence when making an application for bail.

The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) investigating into the alleged arms deal by Danuna Tillekeratne, son-in-law of General Sarath Fonseka, yesterday filed a further report before Judge Lanka Jayaratne and said that they have not completed the investigations.

Earlier the Judge allowed an application by Senior Counsel and directed the suspect Dehoedt to make his confession before the Judge in the chambers.

On an application by the CID, the Judge re-issued the warrant for the arrest of Danuna Tillekeratne who is evading arrest.

Chief Inspector Mohan Siriwardena of the CID said that a special CID team had searched several places in Sri Lanka where Danuna alleged to have been living. The investigation also revealed that Danuna had left the country.

Chief Inspector Siriwardena said that the suspect director had forwarded several forged documents to the Army authorities 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.

The case will be called again on May 12.