(UTV | COLOMBO) – Dates fixed to commence evidence hearing in the case filed at the Colombo High Court against a former Swiss Embassy staffer who is accused of fabricating evidence over alleged abduction of herself by CID officers.
Accordingly, the case is set to be taken up again on 05 August.
The case was taken up before Justice Namal Balalage.
The Attorney General had indicted Francis on charges of having lodged a false complaint with the CID and for having claimed that on 25 November, two years ago, she had been kidnapped by a group of five persons in the Cinnamon Gardens area and was threatened with firearms and detained for hours.
The charges filed against the accused stated the latter had falsely claimed that her abductors had questioned her regarding CID Inspector of Police Nishantha Silva and that her interrogators had sexually abused her.
Later, an official from the Swiss Embassy in Colombo had lodged a written complaint with the then Acting IGP, on 27 November 2019, charging that one of the Embassy staffers had been abducted and sexually harassed.
The CID had then begun a probe into the complaint based on instructions received from the Acting IGP.
While investigations into the incident had been proceeding, Francis had been ordered to report to the CID but as the accused had failed to turn up, the previous Colombo Chief Magistrate, had ordered the passport of the accused to be impounded. The previous Colombo Chief Magistrate had ordered the accused to provide a statement to the CID before 9 December, 2019.
Accordingly, on 16 December 2019, based on advice received from the AG, Ganiya Banister Francis was named as a suspect in the case and the CID apprehended her and produced her before the Colombo Chief Magistrate’s Court. The suspect was then enlarged on bail by that Court on 30 December two years ago.