SLFP denies President’s involvement in CID officer’s transfer

Wednesday, 28 November 2018 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Sri Lanka Freedom Party Vice Chairman, Media Spokesperson and disputed Minister of Ports and Shipping Mahinda Samarasinghe at the media briefing yesterday flanked by disputed Minister of Mass Media & Digital Infrastructure, Vocational Training and Skills Development Dayasiri Jayasekara (left) and General Secretary of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party Prof. Rohana Lakshman Piyadasa

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The Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) yesterday denied any involvement by President Maithripala Sirisena in the decision to transfer a key officer in the Criminal Investigation Department, claiming that the Inspector General of Police (IGP) had misrepresented the facts in his letter to the Defence Secretary.

Spokespersons for the SLFP, MP Dayasiri Jayasekara along with MP Mahinda Samarasinghe, claimed that IGP Pujitha Jayasundara, who ordered the transfer of CID officer Nishantha Silva, who was a key investigator in several high-profile cases, was not being truthful when he wrote to the Secretary of Defence saying that the move was ordered by President Sirisena.

“He has been severely warned against such activity. I don’t know how this letter was released to the media. I think it was released intentionally. When the letter was published on media and social media sites, the Defence Secretary has given the IGP a severe warning regarding his misrepresentation. There is no proof to say that the President ordered such a transfer. The Defence Secretary has to inform the IGP if there was such an order,” he claimed.

The Defence Secretary would also take further action on the matter later, Samarasinghe revealed, failing to specify the nature of such action.

However, he claimed that it was the United National Party which had to bear responsibility for any lapses in investigations into the murders of Lasantha Wickrematunge and Wasim Thajudeen.

“They are the ones who held the responsibility for the Police so they have to be the ones to answer for any delays in the Thajudeen case,” he said.

Samarasinghe also brought out a new interpretation of President Maithripala Sirisena’s comments to the Foreign Correspondents’ Association, exonerating the Executive of possible collective responsibility for corruption accusations levelled at the National Unity Government.

Reading out a transcript of the interview given by Sirisena, Samarasinghe said that the President at no point referred to the administration of the Coalition Government as the “Ranil Wickremesinghe Government” as UNP Chairman Kabir Hashim’s statement to the media implied.

“The President used the words ‘the government when Ranil Wickremesinghe was the Prime Minister’. At no point did he say it was the Ranil Wickremesinghe Government,” he said.

Ridiculing the argument made by Hashim on the President being in office for a “lifetime”, Samarasinghe said that UNP was engaging in “silly arguments based on wordplay”.

“Anyone would know that it was just a figure of speech, not an assumption that he was going to hold office all his life. It is silly to think so,” he claimed.