Monday Dec 16, 2024
Monday Dec 16, 2024
Saturday, 20 January 2018 00:54 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
By Skandha Gunasekara
The Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) yesterday charged that Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe was attempting to whitewash the UNPers involved in the Central Bank bond scam by appointing a committee headed by an individual accused in the Avant Garde case.
Chairman of the Political Bureau of the JVP MP Sunil Handunetti, addressing a media briefing at the JVP headquarters in Thalawathugoda, alleged that MP Thilak Marapana, who has been appointed by the Prime Minister to lead a committee to ascertain UNP members’ involvement in the bond scam, was an accused in the Avant Garde case investigated by the Presidential Commission of Inquiry into serious act of Fraud and Corruption (PRECIFAC).
“The Prime Minister, in his recent statement to the nation, said everything he could to portray himself as innocent. He has also appointed a committee to identify UNPers involved in the bond scam but the committee is headed by MP Marapana who himself is an accused in the Avant Garde case. One of the 34 PRECIFAC reports submitted to Parliament has his name and involvement clearly stated,” MP Handunetti said.
MP Handunetti further pointed out that the brother of MP Marapana, Gamini Marapana, is the lawyer of Perpetual Treasuries chief Arjun Aloysious.
“Marapana’s brother is Aloysious’s lawyer. This is proof that the Prime Minister attempting to whitewash the issue.”
He then called for a special court to be established to prosecute those involved in the scam.
“We have no faith the Attorney General as he has had the COPE report on the same matter for a year and three months but has still failed to take legal action. Therefore we propose that Parliament decide on what course of legal action to take in accordance with recommendations of the bond report. A special court should be set and this case should be heard first,” he said.
Handunetti then asserted that Premier Wickremesinghe is not only involved in the bond scam but had managed to tarnish the image of the UNP as well.
“No matter how the Prime Minister tries to save himself, he and his lackeys have been found, by the Bond report of the Presidential Commission, to have colluded in the bond scam. The Prime Minister has managed to rub the Bond scam dirt on the UNP, destroying its reputation,” he said.
