The Bribery Commission filed a fresh indictment against three accused, including former Minister Johnston Fernando, in place of the indictments withdrawn previously.

On January 28, the Colombo Chief Magistrate’s Court ordered the release of Johnston Fernando and two others from corruption cases following the decision of the Bribery Commission to withdraw the indictments owing to a technical issue. The Bribery Commission officials filed a fresh indictment today in the Colombo High Court with the written sanction of the Bribery Commission.

The Bribery Commission filed this corruption case against former Minister Johnston Fernando, former CWE (Lak Sathosa) Chairman Eraj Fernando and Private Secretary of the former Minister Raj Mohideen Mohammad Sakeer for allegedly causing an Rs.8.4 million unlawful loss to the government by employing the employees of the Cooperative Wholesale Establishment (CWE) for election work during the period 2012.

The Bribery Commission filed these corruption cases against the accused under Section 70 of the Bribery Act on four charges.

The Commission alleged that the first accused Johnston Fernando had unlawfully employed Sathosa employees for election work in 2012 while Minister Johnston Fernando was the Minister of Cooperative and Internal Trade Minister.