Sudath Gunasekara

15.2.2018.

As I was listening to yesterday’s (14) 7 pm Hiru news bulletin, I saw Dr. P. Mahanamahewa explaining in detail how to deal with Arjuna Mahendaran in case if he does not turn up at the CID Office before the 15^th. Today is 15^th but still Mahendran, the third accused as I have stated before has not turned up.  Leaving aside the legal intricacies my question is, are we going to leave it at that. Suppose he never comes back and escape the Sri Lankan, then what next?

If that happens on whom are we going to fix responsibility regarding this mega robbery which has completely ruined a nation with spillover effects for decades and generations to come?

How the conspiracy was hatched and carried out ND BY WHOM

The whole country knows it was Ranil Wickramasinha who brought Arjuna Mahendran to Sri Lanka and got him appointed as the Governor of the Central Bank in spite of strong objections raised by the President, the Head of the State

It was he who invited him to come offering the Governorship of the CB

It was he who got the CB under him as pre-planned from the Finance Ministry.

It was he who took full responsibility for his selection and insisted that Mahendran should be appointed, when the President objected for his request to appoint his buddy

When the matter was raised in Parliament it was Ranil who defended him in the House on 17th March 2017

It was also Ranil who introduced the new system of Bond auctions as revealed by Arjuna Mahendran before the commission in his evidence

It was also Ranil who got the President to dissolve Parliament in August 2017 a day before the Dew Gunasekara COPE Report was to be presented to Parliament and thereby avoided the Report being debated in Parliament.

(This lapse led to the second Bond Scam the subject of the present debate)

He also appointed his own commission of Party lawyers and got Mahendran exonerated before the President appointed his Commission

Then he also wanted Mahendran appointed for a Second term which the President refused and got Coomaraswamy appointed

After that Ranil appointed Mahendran to another high post under his Ministry disregarding and ignoring his highly questionable role in the CB scam and also ignoring the President, probably thinking that it was he who got Mr Sirisena elected as the President, which is partly true.

When he was asked to give evidence before the Commission he got the Commissioners to send him a list of questions to be asked AT THE INQUIRY in advance carefully prepared, so that he can come prepared to answer them, perhaps designed to exonerate him.  This is like the Commissioner of Examinations sending the Question papers to a candidate and accepting his answer scripts at the examiners home and pass him with distinction.

He also got Ravi Karunanayaka the Finance Minister his confidante and Deputy Leader of the UNP to instruct all State Banks to bid at the auction at lower interest ( 9.5%) so that Ajun Aloysius, who was perhaps advised in advance either by Mahendran his father-in-law who was living with him in his home  or jointly by Ranil and Mahendran to quote 12.5 % interest as pre-planned.

He was also responsible for increasing the 10 Billion to 40 Billion as Mahendran has revealed in his evidence before the Commission

It was also he who got Sujiiva Serasinha, the Author of the famous Book on CB SCAM, appointed to the COPE as a member.

It was also he who sent Mahendran to Singapore when dark clouds were gathering over the sky.

(It is beyond comprehension how and why a suspect of such a crime was allowed to leave the country, unless there was some powerful intervention behind it). Ranil should know better than anybody else as to how he left Katunayaka Airport without any problem. Ranil knows better than any if Mahendran is arrested and grilled by the CID and by people like Dappula Livera and Kodagoda he will spill out all the beans and the entire gang of Alibaba and 40 thieves and all others who have jointly conspired, aided and abetted in different ways assigned to them by the leader, like writing books, adding foot notes and those benefitted directly or indirectly will be exposed.

In this backdrop I don’t think this man will ever come to Sri Lanka. The perpetrators must have done their homework so that he could be kept in hiding safely.

Why can’t the President or law enforcing authorities take action against Ranil taking these commitments as a personal a bond and serious crimes and take action accordingly? Of cause one could argue that he cannot be treated under that law as he has not duly singed a bond in court to that effect. Can’t it be accepted as a verbal bond under common law interpreting all what he has done as commissions and omissions against public interest?   I am sure what I have said here could be converted to legal jargon to frame the charges

Therefore the citizens of this country who are the owners of the Central Bank should demand the President to at least now arrest the Golden brain, whoever it is, that conspired, planned and executed this crime with a gang of thieves and who is also doing everything he could, under the sun to protect Mahendran his erstwhile friend for nothing but shear political and personal gain. I don’t think anybody needs to name him. The President should know it better than anybody else. So I leave it to him to decide. I do not know whether he will take the correct decision. But as responsible citizens it is our duty by the country and its people to raise these issues for public debate. If he takes the correct decision on this issue at least now I have no doubt that he will at least partially emerge out of the abysmal political mire in to which he has fallen, not because of anybody else’s fault, but only of his own fault and lapses and lack of far sight.  It will also open the doors for an entirely a new political culture in this country, free from corruption and misgovernment, which the people of this country have been desperately dreaming for decades.

Those of you who read this will know many more involvements and finer points than this. I beg your pardon for shortcomings in this note.

The background  for his selection

Mahendrans are Ranil’s Family friends and strong UNP supporters. Mahendran is also said to be his school mate at Royal. He has been appointed to several posts even in 2001 when Ranil became PM. During that time he also appointed Charless Mahendran, Ajun’s farther to the UN.  While he was there he is supposed to have given some vital secret information to Ranil bypassing Chandrika, over which Chandrika got damn annoyed and dissolved the Parliament making room for the 2014 General Elections that routed Ranil’s Government and sent him to the opposition. It is in this background one has to understand as to why Ranil brought Mahendran to the Central Bank