President’s Counsel Nihal Fernando, making a special statement today, said he would withdraw from representing Perpetual Treasuries Limited (PTL) at the conclusion of CEO Kasun Palisena giving evidence.

Nihal Fernando PC had informed the Bond Commission last week that he would make a decision by Wednesday (6) on if he would continue to represent PTL after it was found that PTL had tampered with evidence submitted to the Commission.

PTL Chief Dealer Nuwan Salgado informed the Bond Commission during hearings on September 4 that he was instructed by PTL CEO Kasun Palisena to delete call recording that may be ‘harmful to the company’.

The tampered call recordings had been handed over to the Bond Commission on August 29 as evidence to be used to establish if Arjun Aloysius (or any other party) had divulged insider information to Perpetual Treasuries Limited.

At yesterday’s hearing it was discovered that former Perpetual Treasuries director Arjun Aloysius had leaked sensitive, insider information on the February 27, 2015 bond auction to PTL CEO Kasun Palisena.