Four defendants of the case against Samarappulige Niraj Roshan alias ‘Ali Roshan’ have been acquitted by the Colombo High Court. Priyanka Sanjeewani, the clerk in charge of the Elephant Registration at the Department of Wildlife Conservation, and three mahouts are among the acquitted. Ali Roshan and a number of other suspects were arrested by the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) in 2018 over the illegal rearing of elephants and racketeering. The Attorney General then filed 27 charges against ‘Ali Roshan’ and six other defendants under the Section 5(3) of the Public Property Act Assistant Director of the Department of Wildlife Upali Padmasiri and a former clerk of the same department P. Sanjeewani are among the other defendants of the case.