Sakvithi under detention

Chamikara WEERASINGHE

Abhaya Ranasinghe Arachchilage Chandana Weerakumara alias Sakvithi Ranasinghe has been placed under detention from yesterday. Thousands of complaints are flowing to the Police phone desk that was set up yesterday by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) regarding Sakvithi’s financial frauds. Police spokesman SP Prishantha Jayakody said the CID obtained a detention order to keep the suspect in custody.

CID Deputy Inspector General of Police Jayantha Kulatilleke said the CID is proceeding with investigations to find how Sakvithi managed to hide his identity to evade arrest for so many years and how he went abroad and came back to the country. The CID is in the process of getting the names of those who have supported him in the process, police said.

Sources at Colombo Police Headquarters said the Phone Desk set up by them have recorded many names of those who have become victims of the suspect’s alleged frauds under investigations.

The CID will give dates for the victims to come and file their complaints against the suspect in due course, they said. The CID telephone number opened for receiving complaints against the suspect is 0112 422 176.

The CID will call for those who have filed complaints at the Mirihana Police. The CID is making a record of the victims to carry out full-scale investigations, police sources said.

Sakvithi Ranasinghe, the famous English tutor and notorious conman who has allegedly defrauded billions from thousands of unsuspecting innocent people after persuading them to place their money in illegal financial companies run by him in a large-scale financial scam, was arrested on Friday from his wife’s residence in Nawagamuwa while being in disguise.

The Mirihana Police that once believed that the suspect had left the country, arrested him at 1.10 pm acting on a tip-off given by a Civil Defence Committee member in the area.

Sakvithi Ranasinghe used the good name of media personality Edwin Ariyadasa to lure people into his scam, when he started a program to teach English to Sri Lankan students with Ariyadasa in a business venture.

Contacted by the Daily News Ariyadasa yesterday refrained to comment on the arrest of Sakvithi, stating that the matter is now in the field of law and justice.