Courtesy Mirror

Colombo, June 8 (Daily Mirror) – Alleging that the President’s office and the Prisons Department had made contradictory statements on alleged granting of pardon to a person who was found guilty of misappropriating Rs 4 million just ten days after he was convicted , Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) MP Ajith P. Perera yesterday said he will raise the matter in Parliament during the next sitting week.

Department of Prisons has issued a statement defending the release of W.M. Athula Tilakaratne, a former finance company manager found guilty of misappropriating Rs. 4 million.

Prisons Spokesman Gamini B. Dissanayake said on Saturday that Tilakaratne was among a group of inmates released under the annual Vesak Poya Day general pardon, which is granted to prisoners who fulfill specific eligibility criteria.

The department emphasized that Tilakaratne was not singled out but qualified under general guidelines due to his sentence structure and remission of his fine. He had been convicted under Section 386 of the Penal Code by the Anuradhapura High Court and received a suspended prison term alongside a Rs. 2 million fine, payable as compensation. The court had ruled that failure to pay the fine would result in six months of rigorous imprisonment.

However a statement from the President’s media office said the inmate’s name was not included in the list of inmates who were to be pardoned for Vesak Poya. The statement also said CID has been asked to conduct an investigation on the incident.

We will raise this issue in Parliament continuously as it could be a serious issue. Any criminal can get away by fraudulently including his name in the pardon list,” MP Perera told Daily Mirror.

I will raise this matter in Parliament once again during the next sitting week from the relevant ministers,” he added.

Both the Ministry of Justice and the President’s office should have gone through the list of inmates who were to be granted pardon. The Prison Department sends the qualified list to the Justice Ministry and it is then sent to the President. The President then approves the list and resends it to the Ministry of Justice to implement the release after looking at the list once again. Therefore there cannot be a mistake on the lists of inmates who are to be pardoned unless it is manipulated,” the MP added.