ECONOMYNEXT – A Magistrate Court in Sri Lanka on Thursday ordered to prevent former Central Bank Governor Ajith Nivard Cabraal from leaving the country after a political activist filed a legal case against him on alleged misappropriation.
Colombo Magistrate Court issued the order to prevent Cabraal leaving the country until April 18 after political activist Rajith Keerthi Tennakoon filed case citing Cabraal’s failure to disclose his relationship to some primary bond market stakeholders.
Tennakoon among his six charges against Cabraal said the former central bank governor had resulted to incur 10.04-10.06 billion rupee loss to the government during his 2006-2015 tenure as the governor of the central bank.
Cabraal was not immediately available for comments.
Cabraal was reappointed as the central bank governor in mid September last year when the signs of economic crisis was started to be visible.
Cabraal strongly opposed to seek International Monetary Fund to address the financial crisis, kept both interest and exchange rates artificially low amid excess money printing. The policy failure later created a severe shortage for dollars and the rupee has fallen nearly 60 percent since the rupee was floated on March 7.
Cabraal resigned from the post on Monday (04) after the ruling Sri Lanka Podujana Peremuna (SLPP) government’s entire Cabinet resigned on the previous day. (Colombo/April 07/2022)
