The preliminary objection raised by the defence over the case filed against former Minister Johnston Fernando and two others for excluding Sathosa employees from their duties and engaged in political activities, was yesterday rejected by the Colombo High Court.
The case was taken up before Colombo High Court Judge Adithya Patabendige and the Colombo High Court Judge observed that there is no obstacle for his court to try the case with the related charges and ordered that the trial be commenced on May 10.Following that, summons were issued to the witnesses to appear before court on that day.
At a previous occasion, President’s Counsel Kalinga Indatissa appearing for the defence raised a preliminary objection that the charges in the indictment cannot be pursued further against the accused.
The case was filed against former Minister Johnston Fernando when he was acting as the Trade Minister, former CWE (Lak Sathosa) Chairman Eraj Fernando and former Minister’s Private Secretary Raj Mohideen Mohammad Zakeer for allegedly causing an unlawful loss to the government by employing the employees of the Cooperative Wholesale Establishment (CWE) for election work.
The Director General of the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption had filed these corruption cases against three accused under Section 70 of the Bribery Act on four charges.
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