A Brief Colonial History Of Ceylon(SriLanka)
Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
A Brief Colonial History Of Ceylon(SriLanka)
Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
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Thiranjala Weerasinghe sj.- One Island Two Nations
?????????????????????????????????????????????????Sunday, August 27, 2017
How Mevan Silva tried to hunt down Lasantha to serve Rajapaksas’ wants
Lanka
News Web revealed how IGP Pujith Jayasundara is trying to get SSP Mevan
Silva appointed as director of the CID in an article titled ‘IGP’s plot
to sabotage CID investigations’. We have received information about a
conspiracy by this Mevan Silva to arrest ‘The Sunday Leader’ editor
Lasantha Wickrematunge to serve wants of the Rajapaksas.
In 2007, Mevan was serving at the CID, whose director at the time was
Sisira Mendis, today the head of the national intelligence service. The
then Rajapaksa regime found Lasantha a big headache for them. Gotabhaya
wanted to take revenge from him for having exposed corruption by the
Rajapaksas through the newspaper. The CID was tasked with gathering
information that could be used for that.
Digging up Lasantha’s information, Mevan found that ‘The Sunday Leader’
owed nearly Rs. three million to its printing paper supplier, which was
around two months overdue. He informed both Mahinda and Gotabhaya about
that.
Delighted by the news, Gotabhaya said this could be used as an excuse to
arrest Lasantha, and ordered that the supplier be summoned. Mevan went
to meet the supplier and questioned him. If the supplier did not
complain, the police had no duty to perform there. Lasantha’s
non-payment of the due would have been a matter for the Fraud Bureau,
not the CID. But, those did not matter for Mevan, as the want was of
Gotabhaya.
The supplier told Mevan that there had been delays in the payments
previously too, but that he knew that he would definitely get the
payments. Mevan threatened him and took him to the CID. Under duress, he
lodged a complaint against Lasantha.
Based on that, Lasantha made submissions to courts and obtained a search
warrant. In the meantime, Lasantha got to know about this conspiracy,
and immediately paid the due to the supplier.
Mevan went to the newspaper office with his search warrant and with a
team of officers to arrest Lasantha. Showing his police powers and that
of the Rajapaksas, Mevan told Lasantha that he had come to arrest him.
When asked for the reason, Mevan boastingly said about the payments due
to the printing paper supplier. When Lasantha showed him the bills to
prove that he has made all the dues, Mevan tried to hide his shame by
using the search warrant and trying to search the place. Being a lawyer,
Lasantha objected, and Mevan had to go back empty handed.
In business, dealings for credit is a normal thing. So are delays in
payments too. However, that was how Mevan worked to appease the
Rajapaksas by threatening a businessman, forced him to lodge a complaint
and misled the courts. His only ability is to satisfy his bosses. Even
today, politicians in both the ruling and opposition sides who are under
investigation by the CID want Mevan appointed as its director, so that
they could cover up the investigations against them.
However, all DIGs in one voice say that the best person for the job is
SSP Shani Abeysekara. They know the history of Mevan and oppose him as
the CID director. However, IGP Jayasundara has sent the name of Mevan
only to the police commission. We know that there are persons in the
commission who work outside the authority of its chairman to serve the
wants of others. We are keeping a watch on the commission’s decision.