Ranjan requests bail for two days

• Says he can reveal full details of all recordings with help of private secretary

By Ashwin Hemmathagama – Our Lobby Correspondent

UNP lawmaker Ranjan Ramanayake yesterday told Parliament he wished to receive bail for two days, enabling him to table all the evidence in his possession in order to expose the corrupt.  

UNP MP Ranjan Ramanayake

According to MP Ramanayake, he is unable to access the evidence safely stored at a private bank during his time in remand prison, with most of his personal electronic items now with the Police.

“The personal laptop, four mobile phones and hard disks are in the custody of the police. So, I need to resort to other options to provide the said materials. All the call recordings that exceed hundred and fifty thousand are presently in possession of the Police. Those are my call recordings and you can’t blame me for not having materials at my hand,” said Ramanayake, assuring Parliament that he would be able to table more recordings with the aid of his private secretary, who has been entrusted with keeping the recordings safe.

“It is not an easy task for him to get access to the safely-kept recordings. Spies follow my private secretary at all times,” he added.

When Ramanayake pointed out the difficulty of accessing the said materials, State Minister of Tea Industry Development Kanchana Wijesekera requested the Deputy Speaker to grant special permission to MP Ramanayake to extract the recorded evidence he alleges to have in possession.

“Yesterday MP Ramanayake said that he is going to table the call and video recordings and other evidence he had. Until now, he had not tabled any such material. When we made statements regarding corruption, we provided solid evidence to back them. This evidence should be tabled and then released to media. Even my name was mentioned in his speech. I would like all such call recordings, including mine to make into the public,” said Wijesekera.