Colombo Chief Magistrate Thilina Gamage ordered the Bribery or Corruption Investigation Commission to immediately arrest the suspects involved in the smuggling of 200 luxury cars into Sri Lanka, depriving the government of Rs.5000 million in taxes and defrauding the Customs.

The Chief Magistrate made the order after considering the facts presented by the Intelligence Investigation Unit of the Bribery and Corruption Investigation Commission that only 20 vehicles out of the 200 have been handed over to the government.

The Bribery Commission informed the court that they had recently seized a Mitsubishi jeep worth over Rs.60 million and that the said vehicle was the 20th jeep found among the 200 jeeps smuggled into Sri Lanka.

The Bribery Commission informed court that although the court had ordered on September 18 to hand over the said jeep to the government immediately, the owner of the vehicle had not done so and had hidden the vehicle and this was found by intelligence officers recently. It was also said that after the court issued a warrant to the owner of the vehicle, the vehicle in his possession was seized.It has now been revealed that luxury jeeps and vehicles were imported after 2015 by providing false information to the Sri Lankan Customs and registered as normal vehicles imported before 2005 by entering false information into the data system of the Motor Traffic Department.

The Bribery Commission is investigating to seize the 200 luxury vehicles that have been imported into Sri Lanka in this manner.

After considering the facts presented by the commission, the magistrate pointed out that it is the responsibility of the Commission to immediately seize the cars that were smuggled in as well as arrest the suspects who have defrauded the government on a large scale and present them to court and ordered the arrest of the suspects involved.

(dailynews.lk)

(Except for the headline, this story, originally published by dailynews.lk has not been edited by SLM staff)