7 May 2022 12:00 am Views - 1086
General Secretary of the SLFP MP Dayasiri Jayasekara yesterday said that he never received any financial benefit from Arjuna Aloysius or the Perpetual Treasuries Ltd (PTL), the main respondents of the Central Bank bond scam that took place in early 2019.
While dismissing the allegations outright, he also challenged the JVP and Wasantha Samarasinghe, the convener of the campaign, ‘Voice Against Corruption’ to frame charges against him if he has committed any financial fraud or engaged in corruption.
Mr. Samarasinghe alleged last week that Mr. Jayasekara had received Rs. one million from the PTL.
Explaining what actually took place to the media at the party office, Mr. Jayasekara said a cheque for one million rupees has been delivered to his election campaign in 2015 (exactly on 2015.07.13 ) by a subsidiary of the PTL, the Walt & Raw Associate Pte. Ltd in Colombo.
“The cheque has been accepted by one of my campaign managers, Buwaneka Kolonne. I got to know about the donation after the election and during an audit. If Mr. Samarasinghe thinks, this is a fraud or bribery, he is free to frame charges against me. The ball is in his court,” Mr. Jaysekara noted.
Mr. Jayasekara added that he gave a statement to the police on 2018.05.24 on the issue following a complaint made by Mr. Samarasinghe on the matter and he heard nothing since then. “ If I have a prima facie case against me, the police or the court would have continued the case,” he said.
Mr. Jayasekara said if the court calls him again he was ready to appear before the court and give further evidence at any time on the matter.
However he pointed out that it was common in almost all the countries that practice parliamentary democracy, party supporters make financial contributions to the election campaign of the party they support. This is an accepted norm in all democracies.
“If, I have committed an offence by unwittingly accepting a financial contribution from a party supporter to my election campaign, almost all other political leaders and political parties in Sri Lanka and countries like Britain, US, Australia, EU countries and even India and Japan must be found to be guilty,” Mr. Jayasekara stressed.
“The JVP’s allegations are not made to promote the concept of good governance but to gain a cheap political advantage by revealing a few already exposed charges against politicians notwithstanding the fact that whether they are true or false,” Mr. Jayasekara noted.