Bail for the former director in the incident where the government allegedly lost 90 lakhs at the Deyata Kirula exhibition.

Colombo Chief Magistrate Asanga S. Bodaragama yesterday (02) ordered the release on bail of a former director of the 'Deyata Kirula' National Exhibition, who was accused of causing a financial loss of ninety lakhs rupees to the government by awarding the tender for the construction of a temporary toilet system, coinciding with the 2013 exhibition, to her son's company.

The person granted bail was Kanthi Gunawardena, who served as a former Assistant Secretary to the Ministry of Telecommunications and Information Technology, as well as a director of the said exhibition. She had previously been arrested by the Criminal Investigation Department in connection with this incident and remanded for three months after being produced in court. The Chief Magistrate, in announcing his order, pointed out that bail was granted to her considering the fact that she had been in remand for three months and was a suspect who had received notice based on a complaint from the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption.

Reporting facts to the court, the Bribery Commission stated that an amount of one and a half crore rupees (15,000,000) had been approved for the tender for the construction of the temporary toilets. The commission further accused her of deliberately causing a loss of ninety lakhs rupees to the government by paying only sixty lakhs rupees and awarding the tender to companies belonging to her associates and her son.

Appearing in court on behalf of the suspect, attorney Dhanushka Prasanjana requested that his client had previously been arrested and remanded by the CID in connection with this incident, and that she would provide full cooperation for future investigations. Accordingly, after considering the facts presented by both parties, the Chief Magistrate ordered the release of the suspect and directed the Bribery Commission to report further details related to this case to the court on July 24.