Fort Magistrate Thanuja Lakmali Jayasinghe has declined to issue notice on Asia Capital PLC, its Chairman Yudhishtran Kanagasabai, Managing Director Raju Radha Directors Stefan Abeysinghe, Shekhar Balasubramaniam, V. Siva Jr., A. D. Ross, Dhammika Swarnasinghe and Stevenson Charles as well as two former employees Reyhan Morris and Sandun Thushara Hettige for cheating and criminal breach of trust, punishable under Sections 403 and 398 of the Penal Code.
The court issued the directive recently in respect of a private plant filed by CC Trust Pvt. Ltd., a Japanese owned company based in Singapore.
The court held that notice couldn’t be issued on the above-mentioned persons as they were not arrested and the court was also not satisfied about the availability of sufficient grounds to do.
The Magistrate also pointed out that the private complaint hadn’t mentioned any witnesses to prove the accusations in addition to being unclear regarding the availability of evidence pertaining to criminal breach of trust.
According to the private plaint, the Chairman, Managing Director and Directors of Asia Capital PLC and two former employees made false representations to the complainants to invest a sum of six million USD on the promise and assurance that Asia Capital PLC would initially invest three million USD and a sum of five million USD thereafter in a Hotel Project in Galle. The foreign investors invested six million USD on being satisfied and believing the representations made by Asia Capital PLC, as it was a company listed on the Colombo Stock Exchange and had constructed a number of star class hotels in Sri Lanka.
CC Trust Pte Ltd., alleged that suspects had deceived the directors of the Japanese company by not completing the project by 30 December 2018 as agreed and did not transfer any Shares of the Galle Beach Hotel Private Limited as assured. Instead, the first to 11th suspects, named in the private plaint, said that they would complete the construction of the hotel and until then would keep the monies invested by the first Complainant Company in a non-interest-bearing Account and once the hotel was completed the said money would be converted to equity in an entity known as Galle Beach CC Trust Private Limited.
