MiG.Plane Purchase Famed Udayanga Arrested & Detained in Dubai Pending Deportation

Followed by a meeting then Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapakshe  had with  Ukrainian citizen Dmytro Peregudov, who was brought to Sri Lanka in February 2006 by Weeratunga,. The Srilankan  Air Force entered into a contract valued at US$ 14.7 million, purportedly with the Government of Ukraine, for the purchase and overhaul of MiG aircraft.

The FCID investigation had revealed that Ukrainian authorities have asserted that the contract signed by Sri Lanka was forged, and that they received less than half of the US $14.7 million paid by the Air Force, with the remainder having been siphoned away through a shell company, Bellimissa Holdings, linked to business associates of Udayanga Weeratunga. Weeratunga was also directly involved in negotiating the contract between the Ukrainian suspect and the Air Force. He was present when the contract was signed in Moscow..

Both Rajapaksa and Udayanga are suspects in the investigation conducted by the Financial Crime Investigation Division (FCID) into the 2006 purchase and overhaul of MiG fighter aircraft to the Sri Lanka Air Force.

After a detailed investigation, the FCID filed a case in 2016  and  named Weeratunga as  a suspect in the case, and the Colombo Fort Magistrate’s Court has issued an arrest  warrant for Weeratunga on charges of cheating and forgery under  public property Act. The court also ordered his passport impounded. The FCID thereafter assembled a task force comprising assistance from the Foreign Ministry, Attorney General’s department, the Defence Ministry and the Criminal Investigation Department to locate Weeratunga and bring  him to Sri Lanka.

INTERPOL assistance was sought to locate Weeratunga in Dubai and he was thereafter placed under surveillance. When the police learnt of his plans to travel to visit Rajapaksa in Los Angeles, action was taken to alert Dubai authorities that his passport was invalidated for travel, allowing the Dubai Criminal Investigation Department to take him into custody when he tried to clear emigration at the airport.

Former Sri Lankan Ambassador to Russia, Udayanga Weeratunga has been taken into custody by law enforcement authorities in the United Arab Emirates yesterday (4), while he was trying to board a flight from Dubai International Airport bound for Los Angeles. He reported to have pleaded with the Dubai authorities to deport him to Ukraine. But a deportation order is expected to facilitate his removal to Sri Lanka.