The Colombo High Court has ordered the discharge of Daisy Forrest from the money laundering case brought against her and Yoshitha Rajapaksa, after a medical panel found she is not in a fit mental condition to take part in proceedings.
High Court Judge Rashmi Singappuli made the order on Tuesday, the Daily Mirror reported. The panel of specialist doctors was led by the Colombo Judicial Medical Officer.
Both accused appeared in court. The amended indictment was read out to Yoshitha Rajapaksa, who pleaded not guilty to the charges. The judge then fixed the pre-trial conference for 2 December, Hiru News reported.
The case, brought by the Attorney General under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, concerns deposits exceeding Rs 59 million whose source could not be established.
A discharge, not an acquittal
The distinction matters and the filings are not consistent about it.
Hiru’s headline and English URL slug say Daisy Forrest was “acquitted”. Hiru’s own Sinhala text, and the Daily Mirror throughout, say the court ordered her discharge — and both give the reason as the medical board’s finding on her fitness to participate.
A discharge on the ground that an accused cannot follow proceedings is a decision about capacity to stand trial, not a verdict on the evidence. Nothing in either account suggests the court made any finding on whether the allegations against her are true. LankaNewz reports this as a discharge.
The Rs 57 million question is now settled
When this desk reported the case being fixed for today on 28 September, the outlets split on the sum: the Daily Mirror said nearly Rs 57 million, NewsFirst more than Rs 59 million, and no account reconciled the roughly Rs 2 million difference.
Both filings on Tuesday — Hiru and the Daily Mirror, including the Daily Mirror’s own headline — give the figure as exceeding Rs 59 million. The Daily Mirror has effectively moved to the higher figure without noting the change. That resolves the conflict this desk left open in September in favour of Rs 59 million.
Tuesday’s reports also confirm the bench. NewsFirst alone named Judge Rashmi Singappuli in September, where the other accounts gave no judge; the Daily Mirror now names the same judge.
How the case got here
The Attorney General filed three charges alleging the pair deposited funds that investigators say could not be explained by lawful earnings into fixed deposits held through three private bank accounts, between 31 March 2009 and 12 December 2013. The indictment was filed in April 2025.
The pre-trial date was set in September after Senior State Counsel Oswald Perera told the court that Yoshitha Rajapaksa’s revision application before the Supreme Court had been withdrawn by the petitioner himself. The Court of Appeal had rejected an earlier revision application on 4 July 2026.
Daisy Forrest was absent from the September hearing, when President’s Counsel Anil Silva, appearing for her, submitted a medical report explaining her absence. Tuesday’s order follows from that thread.
A note on her name
The archive and Hiru’s Sinhala text give her name as Daisy Forrest; Newswire has previously given it as Daisy Forrest Wickremesinghe. The Daily Mirror’s Tuesday report spells it “Daisy Forest”, though the paper’s own September filing used the double-r form. Hiru’s headline calls her “Daisy Achchi”, a public nickname meaning “Daisy Grandma”, not a surname. Accounts have also differed on whether she is Yoshitha Rajapaksa’s grandmother or grand-aunt, and that remains unresolved.
Not reported
Neither filing says whether the Attorney General opposed the discharge or may seek to revisit it if her condition changes, gives the amended indictment’s charge count against the remaining accused, or says whether the amendment altered the allegations. Neither reports her age or the nature of the medical finding beyond fitness to participate.
The case is separate from the CIABOC bribery case over Yoshitha Rajapaksa’s Royal Naval College training, in which he is co-accused with former Navy Commander Admiral of the Fleet Wasantha Karannagoda.