Court of appeal today decided to set aside the ruling by Gampaha High Court Judge Nimal Ranaweera and grant bail to former director of Criminal Investigation Department of Sri Lanka. The judgement says that “the suspect has been in remand custody for the last 10 months. There is no cogent material before this Court to establish that the witnesses were intimidated by suspect Shani Abeysekara.
“Considering the totality of the material placed before us, I am of the considered view that the suspect Shani Abeysekara be enlarged on bail subject to strict conditions imposed by this Court. We act in revision and set aside the order of the Learned High Court Judge dated 09.12.2020 marked as A-2. We order to release the suspect Shani Abeysekara on bail on the following terms.
1. Cash bail of Rs. 25,000/- (Rupees Twenty-Five Thousand)
2. Personal bail of Rs 1,000,000/- (Rupees One Million) with two sureties.
(The Learned High Court Judge Gampaha has to decide the suitability of the sureties.)
3. The suspect Shani Abeysekara should surrender the passport and any other travel document in his custody to the High Court of Gampaha.
4. The suspect Shani Abeysekara should not leave the country without obtaining prior
permission from the High Court of Gampaha.
5. If the suspect Shani Abeysekara or any surety is changing the address given in the bail bond, should inform Court and the Complainant Respondent forthwith.
We direct the Registrar of this Court to communicate this order to the High Court of Gampaha forthwith.”
The judgement in full: ca-cpa-0018-21