Former Minister Johnston Fernando has been remanded until October 30 over the alleged use of an illegally assembled luxury car.
The Fort Magistrate’s Court today issued the order for the former minister to be remanded, following his arrest by the CID earlier today. Johnston Fernando was arrested after he had reported to the CID to provide a statement regarding the vehicle.
The CID inquiry revolved around an illegally assembled luxury car, identified as a BMW, which was recently seized by law enforcement authorities while parked at a prominent hotel in Colombo.
The CID had launched a probe after receiving a tip-off that a luxury vehicle was found parked at the hotel car park suspiciously. Hotel authorities had informed that the black colour BMW with number plate WP C 24-0430 had been parked by an individual identifying as Gamini Abeyratne, a day before the Presidential Election.
During interrogations at the time, Gamini Abeyratne had confirmed that the vehicle belonged to former minister Johnston Fernando and had been dropped off by his driver, claiming that the vehicle would be collected later. Upon inspection CID officials had found several documents belonging to Johnston Fernando inside the BMW but had not found any documents related to the registration of the vehicle.
Cross-examinations on the garage number of the vehicle with the Motor Traffic Department found that the number plate had been registered under the name of a private firm in Nawala. Interrogations of the owner of the company revealed that he had registered the vehicle number plate in March this year via the Motor Traffic Department, but it had been stolen while the vehicle was parked at a radio station belonging to the company.
Inspections of the BMW’s Chassis number WBA5E52010G115194 by Sri Lanka Customs found that a vehicle with the said Chassis had not been legally brought down to Sri Lanka. Based on a request by the CID officials, officials from the Government Analysts Department inspected the vehicle after which it was revealed that the BMW had been illegally assembled. (Newswire)