Dayasiri admits taking Rs. 1 m cheque from Perpetual Group

• Says cheque was given in 2015 before he was appointed to Parliament
• Says cannot recollect who gave cheque or who cashed it By Skandha Gunasekara

UPFA MP Dayasiri Jayasekara in Parliament yesterday admitted that he had received a cheque for Rs. 1 million from Walt & Row Associates, a subsidiary of Perpetual Treasuries. 

MP Jayasekara, however, maintained that he had done nothing wrong by accepting the monies which he had used for his election campaign for his Parliamentary seat. 

“This happened in 2015. Not only Parliamentarians, but even in the provincial and Pradeshiya Sabha level, various individuals help the councillors. During every election, similar monetary assistance is given to politicians. That is the political culture of this country,” he said, noting that he was not a member of the Committee on Public Enterprise (COPE) and was only appointed to Parliament on 17 August 2015. 

He said that the newspaper reported a statement given to the CID by a police officer, Amila Kumara Herath, attached to his security in 2015.  

According to the article, on 13 June 2015 Jayasekara had called on Officer Herath to cash a cheque bearing number 566625, which had been issued by Walt & Row Associates under the current account number 0073900773.

Officer Herath had informed the CID had he had cashed the cheque from a bank in Kurunegala and handed over the money to MP Jayasekara. 

Jayasekara then said that had no recollection of who gave him the cheque. 

 “What is important is who we represented and in this instance, this cheque is not one that was written in my name. I inquired about this but have no recollection of who gave it and who cashed it at the bank. I am truly unaware if Arjun Aloysius had signed this cheque, or even who had signed it. But, we had cashed this cheque and used that money for our election campaign,” Jayasekara said during his statement.

He went on to charge that there were many in Parliament who had taken money from Arjun Aloysius, but would not reveal their names. “I urge authorities to reveal the identities of those who accepted money from Aloysius. I also demand that the missing 3000 pages of the Bond Scam report be tabled in Parliament as well.”

sserting that he had never protected Arjun Aloysius, MP Jayasekara said that this was a campaign to sling mud at him following his decision to sit in the Opposition with 15 other SLFP-ers. 

“We have not taken money from Arjun Aloysius or tried to protect him. I never wrote books on the Bond scam, we never went to court on behalf of Arjun Aloysius and represented him, or tried to stop the investigation,” he added.