President requested to direct Rishad's release

COLOMBO (News1st): The wife of parliamentarian Rishad Bathiudeen has written to the President seeking the release of her husband and his brother who was arrested recently. In a letter to President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, the wife of parliamentarian Rishad Bathiudeen had said that her family has been undergoing grave agony due to the unlawful and unjustified arrest of her husband. The letter read that Bathiudeen is alleged to have been privy to calls between an additional secretary at the industries ministry then headed by Bathiudeen and 2019 April 21st attacks bomber Inshaf Ahamed. However, Ayesha Rishad, the wife of the parliamentarian said that Colossus Pvt. Ltd. owned by Inshaf Ahamed had received a licence to export scrap metal only based on a meeting at the presidential secretariat. "Nobody had any suspicion that the owner of Colossus, Inshad Ahamed would turn out to be a suicide bomber," she said. The letter insisted that it is unfair to arrest Rishad Bathiudeen under the Prevention of Terrorism Act as he had cooperated with all prior investigations on the matter. It added that the parliamentarian's brother Riyaj Bathiudeen had also been arrested without any cause, despite being acquitted by the Fort Magistrate recently.