Shashi Weerawansa’s passport and NIC missing

The Attorney General informed Court that the general passport and the National Identity Card (NIC) belonging to Shashi Weerawansa, the wife of National Freedom Front (NFF) Leader Wimal Weerawansa has gone missing while being kept under court custody as production items in the case.

The CID filed two separate cases against Shashi Weerawansa over an incident where  Shashi Weerawansa fraudulently obtained two passports including a diplomatic passport by submitting forged documents to the Department of Immigration and Emigration.

Deputy Solicitor General Dileepa Peiris appearing on behalf of the CID called for an inquiry into the misplacement of concerned production items. 

Taking into consideration the facts, Chief Magistrate Lal Ranasinghe Bandara issued an order directing the registrar of Colombo Chief Magistrate's Court to immediately produce the concerned production items in Courts.

DSG Peiris submitted to Court that in accordance with the court journal entry dated February 25, 2015, the concerned production items were handed over to court at the open court.

"The registrar has informed CID today morning that the general passport and National Identity Card belonging to the accused were not found in the locker," Peiris added.

Meanwhile, the case was fixed for trial on May 31 and the seventh and eleventh witnesses of the case were advised to appear in Courts on next trial date.

President’s Counsel Anil de Silva with  Jayantha Weerasinghe PC appearing on behalf of the accused informed court that they were yet to receive the first complaint of the case.

The CID gave an undertaking to provide a copy of the first complaint to the defence.

At a previous occasion, the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) filed a charge sheet against Shashi Weerawansa under two counts.

Shashi Weerawansa was arrested on February, 2015 over the charge of obtaining diplomatic and general passports illegally. She had allegedly submitted birth certificate with forged names and dates of birth to obtain those passports. She is currently out on bail.

Deputy Solicitor General Dileepa Peiris, Chief Inspector Jayantha and Police Constable Ganegedara of CID prosecuted. President’s Counsel Anil de Silva with Jayantha Weerasinghe PC appeared for the accused.