Alleged sale of state land using forged deeds:

Green Field Company board member jailed

Wijayani Edirisinghe

The Presidential Special Investigation Unit yesterday arrested a board member of Green Field Company owned by Rohan Ratnayake who is alleged to have earned billions of rupees by selling state land using forged deeds. The suspect, a sister of Ratnayake and a director of the company, produced before the Negombo magistrate was jailed.

The Board of Directors failed to comply with a police order to appear before the Puttalam Police on February 28. They were arrested during a raid. Ratnayake allegedly prepared deeds for a state land in over 153 acres and shared its ownership with his family members. The land had been partitioned into 160 blocks and sold to the public through Green Field Company.

A deceased has been mentioned as the original land owner. The ownership of the state land has been transferred to his family members from him through a gift deed.

The notary who certified the deed is also dead. The deed bearing No 17661 has been destroyed with the help of Land Registration Department officials. Investigations are on to arrest officials involved in this.

Ratnayake fled to Norway when investigation were launched into this fraud. The company Board of Directors comprise seven members. They are either family members or relations of Ratnayake.

The raid was conducted by team comprising Inspector Kariyawasam, Police Constables Deeptha and Priyantha on the instruction of the Presidential Investigation Unit Director and former Deputy Inspector General Iddamalgoda and ASP and Attorney – at - Law Ruwan Gunasekera.