Mastermind believed to be NPP candidate
The racketeer who took Sri Lankans to Laos and abandoned them there after promising jobs in Thailand and was ordered to be remanded until third of next month. The Court also ordered to arrest the mastermind behind the racket who is said to be a National People’s Power (NPP) or Jathika Jana Balavegaya (JJB) candidate for the Local Government polls.
The Hambantota Magistrate and Additional District Judge Oshadha Migara Mahaarachchi ordered yesterday (20) that the individual who was taken into custody and remanded in connection with the allegation of taking persons to Laos on tourist visas stating that they will be given jobs in a company in Thailand and defrauded them while abandoning them, be remanded once again until the third of next month.
The individual was thus remanded again is K.Ruwan Pathirana, a resident of Welipatanvila, Nonagama, Ambalantota.Officers of the raids unit of the Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment (SLBFE) said that this racket had been carried out by the individual who was remanded together with Anura Samaranayake who is contesting the Ambalantota Pradeshiya Sabha this time, from the Jathika Jana Balavegaya.
The suspects had engaged in this scam by saying that Sri Lankan youth will be provided with jobs in Thailand, taken them to that country and gone to Laos from there by boat and abandoned them.SLBFE investigators have received 15 complaints so far, in connection with this scam and cases have been filed against the suspects in five of those complaints at the Hambantota Magistrate’s Court and in relation to another five at the Angunakolapelessa Magistrate’s Court.
As of now, investigating officers have arrested only one suspect involved in this incident and remanded him and SLBFE officers said that the chief racketeer, Anura Samaranayake who is contesting the Ambalantota Pradeshiya Sabha from the Jathika Jana Balavegaya is absconding. When the case in connection with this incident was taken up for hearing in the presence of the Hambantota Magistrate, the Magistrate had ordered officials to produce the suspect who is in remand, from March 2 at the Angunakolapelessa Magistrate’s Court as well.
At the same time, the Magistrate of Hambantota ordered officers of the raids unit of the SLBFE to arrest the main suspect involved in this racket and produce him before his court. A group of officers of the raids unit of the SLBFE were present in court and the case is to be taken up for hearing once again on March 3,2023.