Former Minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage has been acquitted in a case filed against him for money laundering.

Aluthgamage has been charged with failure to declare the source of funds used to purchase a luxury house worth Rs. 27.4 million at Kynsey Road in Borella, during his tenure as a minister.

Kohuwala Police has said that an unmarried elderly lawyer who had lived alone in a house in Kalubowila, has been murdered on her bed and her property was stolen.

The deceased has been identified as Chandani Satharasinghe, 64, of De Silva Road, Kalubowila. Police said that he had a brother who is living in Canada.

She has been in regular contact with him on the phone and had contacted him for the last time on February 15.

A person residing in the Mirihana area, who is a friend of the Canadian resident brother, had come to the Kohuwala Police Station yesterday afternoon and filed a complaint after the latter’s relative told him to inform the Kohuwala Police regarding the loss of contact with her by phone after February 15.

It has been further revealed during the Police investigations, that an assailant or a group of assailants who entered the house had disconnected the electricity and killed her on the bed, covered her body with cloths and searched the belongings in the house. Mount Lavinia Acting Magistrate Ratna Gamage, who came to the scene of the crime, conducted the preliminary magisterial investigation and ordered the Police to place the body in the morgue of the Kalubowila Teaching Hospital and conduct the postmortem.

Kohuwala Police are conducting further investigations under the directive of Mount Lavinia SSP Prasanna Brahakmanage.

The Appeals Court has deferred its decision on the writ application filed by former Health Minister Keheliya Rambukwella challenging the remand order issued by the Maligakanda Magistrate.

The writ application was called before Appeals Court Judge D.N. Samarakoon this morning.
The decision, which was scheduled to be delivered today (30), is now expected to be communicated on May 07.

The former health minister had put forward the relevant petition, seeking a court order invalidating the order issued by the Maligakanda Magistrate under the Public Property Act to remand him until the completion of the trial on substandard human immunoglobulin procurement.