Vindicated too late

The former Solicitor General of Sri Lanka Dilrukshi Dias Wickramasinghe was recently vindicated from allegations that she had engaged in an incriminating telephone conversation with Avant Garde Chairman Nissanka Senadhipathi, who was facing prosecution by her department. Both the University of Moratuwa and the Government Analyst have confirmed that the audio tape of the alleged conversation leaked by Senadhipathi was edited and distorted multiple times.

The process to absolve Dias Wickramasinghe has taken nearly two years. The 22 July directive by the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) to the Public Service Commission to reinstate her as Solicitor General came too late. On 31 July, Dias Wickramasinghe retired from a long and illustrious career at the Attorney General’s Department. The Attorney General simply waited the eight days between out, claiming the PSC recommendations had not been received. Counsel for Dias Wickramasinghe, who filed a writ application in the Court of Appeal, argued that the Solicitor General had been interdicted even before a preliminary investigation could be held, with the decision being based entirely on a doctored audio recording.

Dias Wickramasinghe found herself in the crosshairs of President Maithripala Sirisena early into his tenure.

Appointed as the Chairperson of the Commission on Bribery and Corruption in 2015 Dias Wickramasinghe was instrumental in cracking some of the largest corruption cases in the history of this country. She earned the wrath of President Sirisena when the Bribery Commission hauled up three former Navy chiefs and then former Defense Secretary, Gotabaya Rajapaksa over the Avant-Guard investigation. She executed a sting operation in Colombo to nab President Sirisena’s own Chief of Staff as he was in the process of soliciting a bribe of Rs. 20 million. The President attacked Dias Wickramasinghe publicly, claiming members of independent commissions should “know their limits”.

When the political tide was changing in the aftermath of the Easter bombings, the Opposition forces struck against the Solicitor General, forcing her out of the picture at the Attorney General’s Department.

The Dilrukshi Dias Wickremasinghe saga was one of many dramatic enactments before the crucial 2019 Presidential election – like the fake sterilisation controversy involving a Muslim doctor in Kurunegala and the claims that a serpent king had emerged from the depths of the Kelani River to herald the coming of a great leader. With Sri Lankans reeling from the Easter Sunday bombings and fed up with Yahapalanaya dysfunction, these carefully choreographed enactments played into the people’s fears and frustrations led to regime change in November 2019.

Casting strong doubts against the Solicitor General proved integral to the SLPP’s campaign to secure acquittals and dismissals in a slew of corruption cases against politicians and cronies. Dias Wickramasinghe’s purported admission in the doctored audio tape that the case against Senadhipathi was the result of political machinations gave credence to the SLPP’s claims that all the corruption investigations were politically motivated witch-hunts against the Opposition. A similar tactic was utilised to taint the reputation of former CID Director SSP Shani Abeysekera and show him to be a politically motivated investigator, to cast grave doubts and aspersions on cases prosecuted and convictions secured based on evidence his team had gathered. Audio tapes played a key part in that effort too. Abeysekera, who was arrested on charges that he fabricated evidence in a murder investigation, was recently granted bail by the Court of Appeal after he spent 11 months in prison. The order issued by the CA tore the investigation against Abeysekera to shreds, all but calling it a witch-hunt to harm his reputation. Abeysekera retired a week later.

The SLPP Government was built on advertising, branding and propaganda mastery. The glitz of these campaigns shielded central figures in the administration, hiding their true selves and their innate fallibility. Less than two years in, the façade lies in ruin. In the hollowed out middle stands a Government poised to bring a country to its knees from hunger, poverty and unspeakable cruelty against critics.

A masterclass in political machinations, the effort to besmirch top public officers serving Yahapalanaya paid off for the SLPP when they won political power in 2019. Sri Lanka meanwhile lost the services of two of its most illustrious public officers in the sphere of law enforcement. Time will tell – and soon – whether the trade-off was worth it.