Victorious in placing bet because Gotabhaya wins ... but cheque not honoured and winner ends up at police!

Victorious in placing bet because Gotabhaya wins ... but cheque not honoured and winner ends up at police!

A bet was placed as to who would be victorious at last presidential election and the cheque given to the person winning the bet by the other had notified the bank to withhold the payment and as a result the winner of the bet has gone to police. This incident was reported from Urubokka area.

Two individuals from the same village had entered into this bet and it was for a sum of Rs. fifty
thousand (50,000/-). One of them has given the money in cash notes while the other has given the money by cheque. In this bet the money and the cheque concerned on the bet were kept in custody by two others representing each party.

One of those who entered into the bet happened to be a samurdhi development officer of the village and the money on the bet had been given for custody of another samurdhi development officer. Where the other party was concerned, was a young man and he had given the cheque to be kept in custody to one of his relatives brother who was a businessman. The samurdhi development officer had placed the bet saying that it would be Gotabhaya Rajapaksa who would be the winner and he was happy that he would be able to get a sum of Rs. fifty thousand on the deal.

Accordingly the winner of the bet has after collecting the cheque from the person concerned he had gone to a bank in Urubokka and had produced it at the counter when he was told that the account-holder has requested them to refuse payment on the cheque. In this connection the defeated party of the bet was continuously questioned about this bet of Rs. fifty thousand, but to no avail, thus trying to avoid the issue. On several occasions though he was asked for this payment, as no positive results was forthcoming and the cheque being dishonoured, in order to settle the matter the samurdhi development officer has lodged a complaint with police.

Under these circumstances both parties involved in the bet were summoned to police ; but the person who wrote the cheque concerned had not turned up. Sub inspector of minor offences division of Urubokka police, Mr. S.S. Ananda Anurasiri then informed that there are no provisions to to settle a monetary transaction in relation to an election bet and that if a cheque was given and it is dishonoured, legal action could be taken for having given a dishonoured cheque under the offence of breach of trust.

Though police spoke to the person who gave the cheque by phone, what he said was, "I have not entered into any election bet and have not given a cheque ... I don't know". Thus the person who entered into the bet and was trying to scrape through had the opportunity of getting away from this mess and in the end make a response in that respect. Ultimately he has made a promise to police saying that he is not in a position to settle the sum of Rs. fifty thousand at once and that he would do so in three instalments.

Urubokka - Athauda Pathirana