Who is behind influence against Lalith’s arrest?

04 May 2015

Former chairman of the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission and former secretary to the president Lalith Weeratunga, director general of the TRC Anusha Pelpita and former presidential advisor Watinapaha Somananda Thera are to be arrested within days in connection with the spending of Rs. 620 million of TRC money on a project to distribute Sil clothing among voters on Duruthu full moon poya day, four days before the presidential election.

Their arrests were to be made about a week ago, but an invisible hand had exerted pressure on the president and the prime minister and prevented their arrests, reports say.

Information is coming to light that this pressure was exerted through Weeratunga’s wife Indrani Sugathadasa, who is the incumbent head of the Insurance Board. Several top officials in the state administration service have requested that the law be enforced without arresting Weeratunga since that would be a bad precedence as he is the topmost official in the state service. In the future, state officials would be reluctant to implement orders by politicians, which would lead to a breakdown of the entire state mechanism, they have pointed out to the president