CID under pressure to not reveal politicians involved in Bonds scam

By Gagani Weerakoon-JUN 10 2018

Arbitrary decision by the authorities to confiscated equipment belonging to the Polgahawela radio transmission centre of the Teleshan Network (Private) Limited (TNL) claiming that it had not renewed the licence for transmission created quite a spark in the country. A Spokesperson for the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka (TRCSL) said the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) had conducted the raid and had taken the equipment into custody. TNL Television (TV), in its Facebook page, however, claimed that the TRCSL officials had sealed the transmission centre despite their making the necessary payments for the renewal of the transmission licence. The TNL Spokesperson said the TRC did not have the mandate to conduct raids. However, the Spokesperson clarified that it would only affect transmission from the Polgahawela transmission unit.
According to sources, a complaint had been filed by the TRCSL, with the Polgahawela Police on 4 June, stating that the transmission unit was functioning without a valid licence. Sources said the raid was carried out following a Court Order.

Officials at the TNL, when contacted said that they were yet to take a decision on their future steps pertaining to this issue.

Meanwhile, Minister of Mass Media Mangala Samaraweera in Parliament noted that the closing down of any media institution by the Government is unethical and undemocratic.

The Minister, responding to Joint Opposition (JO) Parliamentarian Wimal Weerawansa, who queried in Parliament whether the incident is a result of a political tug-of-war between the Prime Minister and the President, said that he came to know of the incident about an hour back. “I am trying to obtain a report from the TRCSL right now. Once I receive the report I would inform the House as to what had happened in reality,” Samaraweera said.

 “We do not agree with the political views of the TNL which is owned by the brother of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe. The channel has slung mud at us many times. But we do not approve of the sealing of that institution. It is undemocratic. This Government came to power promising five-star media freedom. Therefore, the Minister should let us know as to what had happened,” Weerawansa said.

“I agree with Weerawansa. Closing down a media institution is not democratic. There are many TV stations which sling mud at us, but we do not have anything against them. In fact, I am a friend of the owners of those media stations and it would not be changed. We should be able to keep our politics in one box and our friendships in another box as professional politicians. I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to death your right to say it,” Minister Samaraweera added.

State Minister of National Policies and Economic Affairs Dr. Harsha de Silva also said that he too agreed with Weerawansa.

“Although we have so many disagreements with Weerawansa, what he is saying here is correct. We cannot agree with this incident. This has been done by the TRCSL which is headed by the Secretary to the President. We came to power with the promise of upholding democratic rights and improving media freedom in this country. Therefore, sealing a transmission tower of a TV station cannot be approved by any means,” he added.

While authorities claimed the taking into custody was done according to legal procedure, many speculated a scathing attack on President Maithripala Sirisena aired by TNL was the closest reason behind it.

Marriage over

Meanwhile, the political marriage maintained by the Unity Government since January 2015 suffered a major setback last week at the election of the Deputy Speaker.
By fielding a candidate against the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) candidate for the post of Deputy Speaker, the Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe-led United National Party has clearly disregarded the MoU between the two Parties signed when forming the Unity Government, the SLFP alleged.

Proposing Dr. Sudarshani Fernandopulle’s name for the post of Deputy Speaker, which fell vacant with the resignation of Thilanga Sumathipala, UPFA MP and the recently appointed Treasurer of the SLFP, S.B. Dissanayake said the position of the Deputy Speaker was allocated for the SLFP. “Therefore, an SLFP MP should be appointed as the Deputy Speaker. Therefore, I propose the name of Dr. Fernandopulle for the post,” he said.
UPFA MP Vasudeva Nanayakkara, who represents the Joint Opposition, seconded Dr. Fernandopulle’s name. However, the UNP fielded its Moneragala District MP Ananda Kumarasiri, as the candidate for the same post.

“The entire episode has clearly shown that there is no agreement anymore. Prime Minister Wickremesinghe has basically opened the gate for the remaining SLFP members to leave the Government. Now, those in the Government should finally get the message, understand the pulse of the people, which they showed through Local Government Election results and more than anything take to heart what President Maithripala Sirisena said the other day, at the SLFP Central Committee meeting, about leaving the Government soon for Party’s benefit and leave the so called Unity Government,” former Minister Chandima Weerakkody told Ceylon Today.

Prime Minister Wickremesinghe said the Government had to propose a United National Party (UNP) MP for the vacant post of the Deputy Speaker because there was no the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) backbencher to be nominated for the post, despite the agreement within the Consensual Government that the Deputy Speaker post should go to a Sri Lanka Freedom Party Government rank MP.

Wickremesinghe made this remark after Speaker Karu Jayasuriya announced that a secret vote should be held to select a new Deputy Speaker because two names from the UNP and the SLFP had been proposed.
UNP’s Kumarasiri and the SLFP’s Dr. Fernadopulle were proposed for the post of Deputy Speaker.

When Kumarasiri’s name was proposed, the Opposition Leader R. Sampanthan said, when the Yahapalana Government was formed, there was an agreement with regard to the posts of the Speaker, Deputy Speaker and Deputy Chairman of Committees.
Since a name from the SLFP had been proposed, the House can go ahead according to the said agreement. I also favour the name of Dr. Fernandopulle for the Deputy Speaker post, Sampanthan said. The SLFP had earlier proposed MP Angajan Ramanathan’s name for the post but later withdrew his name and agreed to field Dr. Fernandupulle. Reason to withdraw Angajan Ramanathan’s name was the opposition expressed by Opposition Leader Sampanthan led TNA.

Responding to Sampanthan, the Prime Minister said that the agreement the latter mentioned was to have a UNP MP as the Speaker and an SLFP MP of the Government, as the Deputy Speaker.

“The agreement says that the post of Deputy Chairman of Committees should be given to the Opposition. We acted according to that agreement. When the SLFP proposed a name for the post earlier some parties objected to that name. There were no SLFP backbencher- MPs in the Government, to be proposed for this post. We do not have any problem with giving the post to an SLFP MP. However, giving that post to an SLFP MP in the Opposition would violate the agreement. Both, the Speaker and Deputy Speaker belong to the Government. Therefore, a proposal had been made from the UNP to appoint a Government rank backbencher to the post. I think the Opposition Leader would help us to go ahead with it,” Wickremesinghe stated.

After the secret vote to select the Deputy Speaker was commenced, Sampanthan and the rest of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) MPs walked away from the Chamber. The Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) also followed them. Eleven MPs from the Joint Opposition also abstained from voting.

The sources said that they were in the canteen when the voting was in progress. The 11 MPs were Shehan Semasinghe, Kanaka Herath, Mohan P. Silva, Ramesh Pathirana, Kanchana Wijesekera, D.V. Chanaka, Piyal Nishantha, Kumara Welgama, Rohitha Abeygunawardena, Tharaka Balasuriya and Chamal Rajapaksa.
However, several other JO members, including the Parliamentary Group leader Dinesh Gunawardena were seen casting their votes.

JO split

The Joint Opposition appeared to be split in Parliament as 18 of their Parliamentarians did not come to vote for the Sri Lanka Freedom Party candidate, for the post of the Deputy Speaker, Dr. Sudarshini Fernandopulle, choosing instead to stay in the Parliament canteen.

MP Dinesh Gunawardena told our sister paper, the Mawbima, that at the customary Group meeting presided over by former President Mahinda Rajapaksa the JO MPs had taken an unanimous decision to vote for Dr. Fernandopulle to defeat the United National Party candidate.

 However, when the vote by secret ballot did take place, 18 MPs from the JO did not attend. The JO has a total of 54 MPs, out of whom three are overseas and four did not come to Parliament yesterday.

Informed sources said that MP Prasanna Ranatunge had led the group that stayed in the canteen.
Gunawardena added that he would be speaking to Rajapaksa about the absence of the MPs from the voting. “It is not right for them to not heed our leader’s request,” he said.

CID under pressure

In the backdrop of top political names being revealed in connection with the Central Bank Treasury Bonds scam, Ceylon Today reliably learns that the investigating officers are under severe pressure to not reveal or publicize names.
Director Criminal Investigations Department (CID) SSP Shani Abeysekera and IGP Pujith Jayasundara were summoned by a top political authority last Thursday night and were ordered not to include politicians’ names when filing ‘B’ reports with regard to the case against Perpetual Treasuries Owner Arjun Aloysius. Currently, two names, those of former Minister Dayasiri Jayasekara and State Minister Sujeewa Senasinghe have been revealed, in ‘B’ report filings, as those who received funds from either PTL or other companies belonging to Aloysius. Speculation is rife that politicians belonging to many political parties have received funds as campaign money from Aloysius during and after the last General Election held in August 2015.

According to reliable sources, the CID has finalized investigations in connection with another woman politician, who allegedly received funds from Aloysius. While, personal bodyguards and campaign managers were involved in the transactions that took place between Aloysius and Jayasekara and Senasinghe, the CID officials have questioned the son of the woman politician who was involved in the deal.

Meanwhile, both investigators as well as legal officials, involved in the case, have vowed to not give in to political pressure. Legal officials were of the opinion that the investigators (CID) are bound to go ahead with their investigations impartially, comprehensively and consistently as per the directives of the Judiciary.

They also maintained that while they are aware that extremely sensitive political issues may occur as the investigations are going ahead, both parties are not in a position to stop the ongoing investigations.

According to a top official of the CID, approximately 44,000 transactions have taken place between Aloysius and various other parties and they have only completed investigating only around 150 transactions.