Colombo Fort Magistrate – Nilupuli Lankapura has directed the CID to launch a full investigation into an alleged Rs.90 million fraud at the state owned People’s Bank.

The order follows a motion filed by Senior Counsel Gunaratna Wanninayake over the incident said to have occurred nearly a decade ago, calling for the perpetrators to be caught.

Accordingly, the CID’s Commercial Crimes Division was instructed to identify those responsible and report progress by July 30th.

The case originated from a CID complaint filed on October 28, 2015, by Chairman of Yashoda Holdings (Pvt) Ltd – Yasasiri Kasthuriarachchi. The case alleges that forged documents were used to fraudulently secure a loan by transferring property ownership.

Senior Counsel Gunaratna Wanninayake informed the court that a loan of Rs.90 million was secured by mortgaging a 48-acre land in Pasyala worth Rs.4,000 million inherited by his client – Kasthuriarachchi. The loan was obtained from the state bank using forged documents and without the loan money ever reaching his clients’ accounts.

He further noted that loans of this scale from a state bank usually require board-level approval, yet no such approval is on record prompting the question of who misappropriated the Rs.90 million.

He requested a full investigation into the incident.