By Gagani Weerakoon and Methmalie Dissanayake Courtesy Ceylon Today

Controversial evidence revealed at the Presidential Commission of Inquiry (PCoI) investigating into the issuance of Treasury Bonds to the effect that Perpetual Treasuries Limited owner Arjun Aloysius had spoken to several members of the Parliamentary watchdog, Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE) during the hearings, resulted in a heated situation in Parliament yesterday (17).

Joint Opposition Member C.B. Ratnayake urged Speaker Karu Jayasuriya to conduct an inquiry, through a special committee on COPE members, who were alleged to have had conversations with Aloysius, while COPE Chairman Sunil Handunnetti requested the Speaker to obtain voice recordings of the alleged phone conversations.

Minister Dayasiri Jayasekara said, for the sake of the dignity of all COPE members and Parliament, the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) should be asked to handover all the conversations, with detailed voice recordings to the PCoI.

He said, this when United National Party (UNP) MP Hector Appuhamy raised a privilege issue accusing the media of carrying out a mudslinging campaign against him and the others.

“I have never discussed the Bonds issue with Aloysius. I can talk to Aloysius anytime, even tomorrow as I am clean and did not have any fraudulent deals with him,” he said.

Deputy Minister Lakshman Seneviratne who joined in the cross talk said that it was wrong for COPE members to have conversations with Aloysius. “I am a member of COPE and I believe it is wrong for any COPE member to have any conversations with Aloysius while sittings of the committee were in progress.”