BY Ruwani Fonseka
- Sunken Nation Lanka Finance keeps diving into greater depths as court proceedings continue.
- As of March 31, 2025, the top five shareholders of NLFP are Singhe Capital Investment Limited (38.22 percent), Mutual Holdings Limited (17.63 percent), V R Ramanan (13.8 percent), D.S.I. Weerasinghe (7.81 percent) and Dunamis Capital PLC (3.27 percent).
Colombo Chief Magistrate Asanga S. Bodaragama yesterday (16) ordered that two persons, Mahesh Priyantha Agalagamage and Chandika Yasanath Bandara Weerakoon, who were remanded for allegedly defrauding over Rs. 900 million from over a thousand depositors, be further remanded until the 29th of September 2025.
The Colombo Chief Magistrate rejected the bail application presented by a team of lawyers representing the accused, ordered the release of the 10th suspect, M. Udaya Pushpakumara, on a cash bail of three hundred thousand rupees and three personal sureties of two million rupees each, and that one of the sureties should be a family relative, and ordered their affidavits to be submitted to the court.
Meanwhile, the Magistrate imposed a travel ban on Pushpakumara and ordered him to surrender his passport to the court and to provide evidence to that effect if he does not have a passport.
Yesterday, the 10th suspect was produced in court, and the Prisons Department informed the court by submitting a report that suspects 1 and 11 have been produced in Polonnaruwa Court for another similar case.
Presenting evidence on behalf of the aggrieved party, the panel of lawyers including PC Neville Abeyratne, Senior Counsel Dharmathilaka Gamage, and Counsel Pradeep Wijesinghe stated that there were far more complaints against the accused that what was reported to the court.
“Your Honor, although about 600 complaints have been submitted to the court, in this new case, there are about 1000 to 1200 aggrieved parties islandwide. Despite the numerous complaints, The Criminal Investigation Department has not taken measures to record the statements of all of them. Although there are 11 suspects, the mastermind of this, Victor Ramanan, the Chairman of Nation Lanka Company, has not been arrested yet. They are evading the police. Allow the aggrieved party to intervene by producing an affidavit. We have read this case report page by page. Investigations should be conducted into the criminals behind this,” the lawyer representing the agreived said.
“Even though more than 10 further reports were submitted, only three suspects were brought to court. I have also held this position for some time. This also increases my workload. I cannot imagine that the police are doing this. The suspects need to be arrested. Even though the Criminal Investigation Department went to arrest them, they are not at their homes. The Chief Magistrate cannot keep issuing warrants to suspects who are not residing in the given addresses. If there is any information about the suspects, it should be reported to the Attorney General and arrested. These are crimes that warrants should be issued for,” the lawyers pressed.
They further noted that one of the suspects have been released on bail, but it was vital that all mentioned suspects be investigated thoroughly.
“If they have taken shares in other companies, investigate and report on them. They are not mentioned in the reports. That is what the police are there for. Investigate and report to the court,” they added.
The case is to be re- called on the 29th of September 2025, while agreived parties still remain highly dissatisfied with the court proceedings as the main suspects remain at large and free.
Agreived parties gathered outside the Chief Magistrate’s Court yesterday in a silent protest demanding the arrest of the Chairman of Nation Lanka Finance, citing that the main suspect remains free, while massive losses have been incurred by them.
