MANGO TREE RESTAURANT CASHIER GRANTED BAIL

A cashier attached to a popular restaurant in Kollupitiya who was held in remand custody for allegedly defrauding the restaurant of Rs.2.8 million whilst serv- ing as its cashier was released on bail by a Colombo Court yesterday. When the case came up before the Colombo Fort Magistrate Kanishka Wijeratne, defence counsel Nalinda Indatissa with Sunanda Deshapriya moved Court that the suspect be released under any bail condition the Court deems fit. De- fence counsel further maintained that there was no reason to keep him in remand custody since there were no complaints against him over interfering with witnesses.

However, the CID raised objections to the request made by the defence and told Court that the investigations into the incident had not yet been concluded and to re-

The CID informed Court that they had so far been unable to arrest other suspects who were involved in the crime

cord statements from the restaurant employees.

The CID had investigated this incident after a complaint was made by a director of the company that runs the restaurant. In his complaint, Mr. Viraj Shanthilal Panchal (the director) had alleged that two cashiers attached to the restaurant had defrauded the company of Rs.12 million.

The CID stated that the suspect was believed to have defrauded the organisation of Rs.2.8 million. The CID said that the suspect had avoided entering the money transaction data on the com- puter, as required, and thus defrauded the money during the period December 2009 to March 2012. The CID informed Court that they had so far been unable to arrest other suspects who were involved in the crime

Having considered both partie’s arguments, the Magistrate ordered the suspect be released on cash bail of Rs.500,000 and three sureties of Rs. 3,000,000.