Former Defence Secretary’s FR Petition Fixed on 24th Oct
On 13th May 2015 the Supreme Court issued an interim order staying the arrest of former Defense Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa and granted leave to proceed in the fundamental rights petition filed by him.
However, on 8th June 2015 the Supreme Court clarified that the interim order staying the arrest of the former Defence Secretary would only apply to four incidents namely floating armoury incident, allegations of corruptions and irregularity in the purchase of MiG 27 in year 2006, Purported share manipulation at Lanka Hospitals Limited and Mihin Lanka deal and his arrest cannot be made by three respondents including the IGP, CID Director and DIG of the FCID.
The Supreme Court observed that this interim order would not apply for any other investigative authorities who have not been named as the respondents.
Through this petition, Rajapaksa sought the intervention of the Supreme Court to exercise the fundamental rights jurisdiction to prevent an imminent arrest of him over pending or on the conclusion of several purported investigations by the Criminal Investigations Department, Commission to Investigate Bribery and Corruptions and the Frauds and Corruption Investigation Division (FCID) allegedly set up by an order which is ultra vires.
In his petition, Gotabaya Rajapaksa had cited 45 persons including the Cabinet of ministers , IGP Pujith Jayasundara and Attorney General as respondents.
In his petition, Former Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa had sought Court’s intervention to prevent an imminent arrest of him over several purported investigations.
The Supreme Court yesterday fixed for argument, the Fundamental Rights petition filed by former Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, for 24th October 2017.
