Extraditing Mahendran: S'pore wants SL to check on the procedure

6 June 2018 11:10 pm Views - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}} 28 Bookmark

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Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe told Parliament today that the Singapore government had asked the Sri Lankan government to make a request about the procedure to extradite Central Bank's former governor Arjun Mahendran as its laws did not allow Singapore to arrest him based on an Interpol red notice.

He said the CID had made a formal request from the Defense Secretary on April 25 because our extradition laws were under his purview.

The Prime Minister said this when responding to a question asked by Chief Opposition Whip Anura Kumara Dissanayake whether the Sri Lankan government had sought international assistance to locate and arrest Mr. Mahendran based on Interpol blue and red notices issued on April 5 and 10.

The PM said he did not know where Mahendran resided in Singapore in response to a question as to why he could not help locate Mr. Mahendran because the latter was his friend.

“I knew where he lived earlier but he had changed his address several times thereafter,” the Prime Minister said and added that he had lost contact with Mr. Mahendran since the presidential commission began its investigations. “He used to inform me whenever he went abroad during his tenure as governor but he had not done so after he left Central Bank. The present governor of Central Bank also informed me whenever he goes abroad but I don’t expect him to do the same when he leaves the post."

However, the PM informed the House that he had questioned Mahendran whether it was a correct for him to leave the country to attend a family wedding in 2016 when a probe was being carried out on the bond scam.

Responding to another question asked by Mr. Dissanayake whether he accepted that something illegal had taken place, the Prime Minister said legal action was being taken because something illegal had taken place. (Yohan Perera and Ajith Siriwardana)