The father of detained drug trafficker Shiran Basik has been arrested over the purchase of a Gampaha apartment worth more than Rs. 30 million, both the Daily Mirror and Hiru News reported on Friday.
Abdul Razak Mohamed Basik was taken into custody by the Colombo Central Crime Investigation Bureau (CCIB), the Daily Mirror reported at 2.43pm. Hiru News said the arrest was made under money laundering charges.
The property was allegedly bought in the father’s name
Police say Shiran Basik purchased a property valued at around Rs. 30 million in a luxury housing complex in the Gampaha area under his father’s name, Hiru News reported.
Hiru adds a detail the Daily Mirror does not carry: the father had been instructed to report to the CCIB today to give a statement about the purchase. On that account the arrest followed a summons rather than a raid.
The two outlets describe the property slightly differently — the Daily Mirror calls it an apartment at a housing complex in Gampaha, Hiru a house in a luxury housing complex in the Gampaha area. Both agree on the location and the approximate value.
It extends an asset inquiry that has been widening for weeks
The arrest is the latest step in a financial investigation that has moved steadily outward from the narcotics file. Basik was brought back to Sri Lanka from Dubai in August and held under a CCIB detention order.
Since then investigators have examined his hotel interests and alleged terrorism-financing links, obtained a court order to review every bank account connected to him, and uncovered property in Switzerland, Italy and France during questioning. Two political figures have been questioned in the course of that work — Dhanasiri Amaratunga on 1 September and former State Minister Arundika Fernando on 3 September.
Yesterday the Illegal Assets Division froze Rs. 100 million in property belonging to a close associate, Ranatunga Arachchige Nalin Arjuna, for an initial 14 days. Today’s arrest applies the same theory — assets held in other people’s names — to Basik’s immediate family.
Basik himself remains in CCIB custody. The narcotics case against him was put off by the Colombo High Court to 2 October.
A third account names the unit — and the question he was called to answer
NewsFirst, filing at 4.51pm, attributes the arrest specifically to the Illegal Assets Investigation Division of the CCIB — the same unit that froze Rs. 100 million in a close associate’s property a day earlier — rather than to the bureau generally.
It confirms Hiru’s account that he was taken into custody when he arrived to record a statement, and adds what he was summoned to explain: police called him in to obtain information on how the funds to buy the house were acquired. NewsFirst describes the property as unaccounted for.
The three outlets spell the name two ways — Abdul Razak Mohamed Basik (Daily Mirror) and Mohammad (NewsFirst) — and describe the property as a house within an apartment complex in Gampaha, an apartment at a housing complex, and a house in a luxury housing complex respectively. All three agree on Gampaha and on the Rs. 30 million figure.
Not reported
No outlet gives the father’s age, says whether he has been produced before a court or names the housing complex. None reports when the property was bought, how it was paid for, whether it has been seized or frozen, or whether the father is alleged to have known the source of the funds. No charge has been formally stated beyond Hiru’s reference to money laundering.
