Major (Retired) Ajith Prasanna Enlarged on Bail

By Hansi Nanayakkara

Major (Retired) Ajith Prasanna, who was in remand custody on a charge of exerting pressure on witnesses in a case having held a Media briefing, was ordered to be enlarged on bail by the Court of Appeal yesterday (13).

The Court of Appeal thus ordered its decision to be conveyed to the Colombo Additional Magistrate’s Court.

Therefore, Prasanna was enlarged on bail by a two-Judge Bench of the Court of Appeal consisting of Justices Devika Abeyratne and Priyantha Fernando, having perused a revision bail application submitted by the former.

Accordingly the Bench ordered Prasanna to be enlarged on two sureties of Rs. 500,000 and advised him to report on each Sunday of the month to the CID as part of his bail condition.

The accused Major was represented in Court by PC Shavendra Fernando. Fernando told Court that his client was sick and had spent over a year in Prison.

Fernando said as his client has promised not to intimidate witnesses henceforth and this should be taken into consideration when enlarging his client on bail.

State Counsel Janaka Bandara also agreed with the request made by the defence.

Three defendants including Ajith Prasanna and two naval intelligence officers were accused of holding a Media briefing in December two years ago and intimidating witnesses in the case against several navy officials over the abduction and disappearance of 11 youths from Colombo and suburbs in 2008 and 2009. 

Colombo Additional Magistrate ordered Prasanna to be remanded in January 2020. In February 2020, the Defence Attorneys had submitted a bail application on behalf of their clients.

The Defence Attorneys argued that no evidence was presented to Court, proving that their clients had violated the provisions of Victims of Crime and Witnesses Protection Act and stressed that the statements made by the defendants at the Media briefing in question did not violate the aforesaid Act.  

In this instance the bail application was rejected.