EX KANDY MAYOR KESARA SENANAYAKE RELEASED

President pardons Ex Mayor of Kandy for travelling abroad with wife on Government funds

Ex Mayor of Kandy Kesara Senanayake had obtained government funds from the Kandy Municipal Council to proceed to Taiwan to attend a training programme organised by the International Provincial Society. The venue was Taipei in Taiwan in the year 2004, when he was the Mayor of Kandy. Instead of attending the Training programme in Taiwan he had proceeded to Singapore accompanied by his wife and gone on a shopping spree.
He was accused on two counts one for for misappropriation of Government funds and the other for cheating. A case was filed against him by the Bribery and Corruption Commission against his offences. He was found guilty of the two charges framed. He was found guilty of both offences and the courts had given him two separate punishments. For the first offence he was asked to pay a fine amounting to Rs one lakh and 12 months imprisonment and a suspended sentence for 5 years. For the second offence he was fined Rs one lakh as a fine and 3 months rigorous imprisonment.
Against these judgements Kesara Senanayake appealed to Colombo’s Appeal Courts by furnishing two petitions to obtain redress against the verdicts already given. However both appeal cases were lost. His third attempt was a very shrewd one. It was to get a reprieve from the President by changing his political party by joining the UPFA. The President according to the Act no 34(1) a in the Government’s constitution has given him a pardon and the Judge had ordered him to be released.