The Supreme Court today affirmed the conviction and sentence imposed by the Permanent High Court Trial-at-Bar against former President Maithripala Sirisena’s former Chief of Staff Kusumdasa Mahanama and former State Timber Corporation (STC) Chairman Piyadasa Dissanayaka in connection with the controversial Kantale sugar factory bribery scam that took place in 2018.
Kusumdasa Mahanama was sentenced to 20 years’ RI by the Permanent High Court Trial-at-Bar for soliciting a bribe from an Indian investor who wished to acquire a section of the Kantale sugar factory. Piyadasa Dissanayaka was sentenced to 12 years of rigorous imprisonment.
The Supreme Court’s five-judge bench, comprising Justices Vijith K. Malalgoda, L.T.B. Dehideniya, Preethi Padman Surasena, S. Thurairaja, and Yasantha Kodagoda, observed that there had been neither illegality nor abuse of power in the manner in which the officers of the Bribery Commission conducted the investigation against the accused.
Thus, it is beyond doubt that the events that resulted in the first accused, with the assistance of the second accused, accepting a bribe of Rs 20 million were purely due to voluntary conduct on the part of the two accused, and Bribery Commission officers, along with the virtual complainant, had not participated in an entrapment as alleged on behalf of the accused, the Supreme Court observed.
Through their appeal applications, two accused sought the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court to review and set aside the conviction imposed by the Permanent High Court Trial-at-Bar dated December 19, 2019.
The two accused, former President Maithripala Sirisena’s former Chief of Staff Kusumdasa Mahanama and former STC chairman Piyadasa Dissanayaka, were arrested by the Commission to Investigate Bribery or Corruption (CIABOC) in the car park of a luxury hotel in Colombo on May 3, 2018, while they were accepting a bribe of Rs. 20 million, and they are charged with allegedly soliciting a bribe of one million dollars and accepting another Rs. 20 million from an Indian investor who wished to acquire a section of the Kantale sugar factory.
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