May 26, Colombo (LNW): The Colombo High Court has delayed the announcement of rulings in four corruption-related cases involving former Deputy Minister Sarana Gunawardena, with the judgments now set to be delivered on June 09.
The cases were taken up before Colombo High Court Judge Mohamed Mihal on Monday, where the court was informed that the written decisions were still being finalised. As a result, the judge ordered that the verdicts be postponed for a further two weeks.
The legal proceedings were initiated by the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption (CIABOC), which alleges that Gunawardena was responsible for causing financial losses to the state during his time as Chairman of the National Lotteries Board in 2006.
According to the allegations, the losses stemmed from the procurement of vehicles on a rental basis for the institution, a move investigators claim resulted in undue expenditure of public funds.