Sudath Gunasekara

28.4.2018

As I had pointed out in Lankaweb sometime back the whole country knows that,

It was Ranil Wickramasinha who brought his buddy Arjuna Mahendran to Sri Lanka and got him appointed, as preplanned, as the Governor of the Central Bank in spite of strong objections raised by the President, who is only the de jure 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 from the Finance Ministry to accommodate Arjun M as conspired.

It was he who took full responsibility personally for his selection and insisted that Mahendran should be appointed, when the President objected Mahendram being appointed.

When the matter was raised in Parliament it was Ranil who defended him in the House on 17th March 2017 and stood for his credentials.

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 to defend Mahendran.

(This lapse paved the way for 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 Commission to send him a list of questions to be asked AT THE INQUIRY in advance, 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. What is more he got his own Attorney General to lead his evidence, who did a shoddy job to save his master preventing Kodagoda or Dappula Livera cleverly leading evidence, that would have  turned the tides

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, with whom he was living 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 that increased the loss to Government

It was also he who got Sujiva Serasinha, the Author of the infamous Book on CB SCAM, and got him 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 by the Custom Authorities, 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 the law enforcing authorities take action against Ranil taking these commitments as evidence of 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 personal bond in court to that effect. But I argue as to why we can’t take his open undertaking to the President (unless of cause the President denies it most probably) on behalf of Mahendran be accepted as a verbal bond under common law. I am sure what I have said here could be converted to legal jargon to frame the charges. Why can’t the President direct the authorities to arrest Ranil under these circumstances and keep him there at least now until he produces Mahendran before the court? I am sure he should have met Mahendran in Singapore when he was there last time and if he wanted to, I am sure he could have brought Mahendran with him in the same plane and produced in courts without any problem.

Therefore the citizens of this country who are the owners of the Central Bank should demand the President to give directions to the CID at least now to 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 exonerated from the blunder he did by appointing Mahendran and may 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 and leadership.  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.

No one on earth will believe that Ranil does not know where Mahendran is hiding. As such why can’t the law enforcing authorities get Ranil to bring and produce this man whether he on earth or in heaven.

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

PS: 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 2004 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.

In this back drop, there couldn’t be the slightest doubt that Ranil should know where Mahnedran is hiding. As such I opine it is Ranils bounden duty as well as legal obligation to produce him before the CID, failing which, action has to be taken against him. This I believe is the responsibility of the President, as he is also responsible for this gang robbery as it was he who has actually appointed Mahendran as the Governor of the CB and also it was he who even though inadvertently supported Ranil in this mega robbery by failing to take the correct action at the correct time.

In this backdrop, and also as he has stood surety to Mahendran why can’t the court arrest Ranil and ask him to produce Mahendran physically before the courts and keep him where he should be until he produces his chum.