The former Mayor of Dehiwala-Mount Lavinia, Dhanasiri Amaratunga, arrived at the Central Crime Investigation Bureau on Tuesday to give a statement, Ada Derana reported.
The statement is being recorded in connection with the bureau’s investigation into Shiran Basik, an alleged large-scale drug trafficker currently in CCIB custody.
Ada Derana reported nothing beyond those two facts. It did not say whether Amaratunga attends as a witness or a suspect, what line of inquiry the statement concerns, whether he was summoned or came voluntarily, or how long he was expected to remain at the bureau. Attending to give a statement carries no implication of wrongdoing.
Who Basik is
Basik, 48, is a resident of Kalubowila in Dehiwala — the same municipality Amaratunga formerly led — and is the subject of an Interpol Red Notice. He was flown back to Sri Lanka from Dubai on 14 August with two other men described as underworld figures, more than two months after Dubai Police arrested him in May. He had lived in the United Arab Emirates since 2018, presenting himself as a wealthy businessman.
He was handed to the CCIB on arrival and placed under a detention order.
Why the bureau is examining his local connections
Two days after his return, Basik told investigators he holds a stake in five Marine Drive hotels, while police alleged he had dealt with terrorist organisations. The investigation has since centred on tracing his assets and the people who handled them.
Ada Derana did not connect Tuesday’s statement to that strand of the inquiry, and no outlet has reported any allegation against Amaratunga. The geographical overlap between Basik’s Kalubowila address and the municipality Amaratunga headed is a matter of record rather than something any outlet has drawn a conclusion from.
Update: NewsFirst says the inquiry concerns a cash transaction
Amaratunga was summoned before the bureau in connection with an investigation into a cash transaction involving Basik, NewsFirst reported later on Tuesday, citing police. Statements are being recorded from him about it.
That answers two of the questions left open above. Ada Derana had reported only that he arrived to give a statement in the Basik investigation, without saying what the statement concerned or whether he came voluntarily; NewsFirst’s account supplies both, and places the inquiry in the tracing-of-assets strand rather than any other.
The two outlets differ on detail. Ada Derana calls the body the Central Crime Investigation Bureau; NewsFirst calls it the Colombo Central Crime Investigation Bureau. NewsFirst renders his first name Danasiri in its opening sentence and Dhanasiri later in the same report, and spells the suspect’s surname Basick where Ada Derana has Basik. Neither outlet has stated whether Amaratunga is a witness or a suspect, and being summoned to give a statement carries no implication of wrongdoing.
Still unreported: when Amaratunga served as mayor, whether he holds any current office, the size or direction of the transaction, and whether further statements are to be recorded.
