Warrant issued on Keerthi Wijeratne

A warrant was issued yesterday for the arrest of a former North Central Provincial Council member who had evaded trial in a case of cheating.

Colombo Additional Magistrate Gian Ranawake issued a warrant yesterday for the arrest of Keerthi Wijeratne of No. 155/A, Dharmapala Mawatha, Colombo 7. The suspect was a lawyer and had been a member of the North Central Provincial Council. He had contested the elections on the UNP ticket and later crossed over to the PA. When the case was called yesterday, the Colombo Fraud Bureau filed further complaints made by several persons, by way of a “B” report. The report alleged that the suspect had run a travel agency called “Araliya Overseas” at Dharmapala Mawatha, Colombo and collected moneys ranging from Rs 700,000 to Rs 1,000,000 from various persons by promising to send them for jobs in Japan. Later he had closed down the business and disappeared. However, he had later surrendered to the Colombo Fraud Bureau and been produced in court and released on bail.

The suspect was not present in court when the case was taken up for inquiry yesterday. Consequently, the magistrate had issued a warrant for his arrest.

The complainants, who were present in court, said that the suspect had left the country.