COLOMBO (News 1st) – Court of Appeal Judge, Justice Janath De Silva, declared in open court today (May 31) that he would be removing himself from hearing the Court of Appeal application filed by Former Defense Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa.

The Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption had filed an action in the Colombo Chief Magistrate’s Court against the former defence secretary on the charge that the former defence secretary had caused the country a loss of Rs.11.4 billion by granting approval for Avant Garde Maritime Services to operate a floating armoury.

Gotabhaya Rajapaksa had subsequently filed a petition in the Court of Appeal requesting the court to declare him not-guilty from the charges filed by the commission and to remove him from the case.

The Court of Appeal petition was called before Court of Appeal Justices Kumudini Wickramasinghe and Janath De Silva.

The matter was postponed for tomorrow (June 1) by Justice Kumudini Wickramasinghe after Justice Janath De Silva declared that he be removed from hearing the matter citing personal grounds.