Withdrawal of bribery cases against politicians and their allies raises eyebrows
It is claimed that within the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption (CIABOC), that instructions have been given by Commissioner Wakista to take disciplinary action against a senior legal officer who has vehemently refused to heed unlawful instructions given by the former.
“This honest legal officer is known to have worked at CIABOC over the years without engaging in any unlawful work. When instructions were given to her to destroy certain pages in selected files, she had refused to carry out the illegal orders. On the advice of Wakista disciplinary action will soon be taken against her to which we are ready to counter-attack and expose the unlawful activities that are taking place at this Commission under the present Chairperson and the Commission members,” the sources alleged.
This newspaper received details of 19 cases that are to be closed by the Commission after threats were issued to both legal and investigation officers.
“Although honest legal and investigation officers stand firm not to heed the unlawful instructions given by the Commissioners, there are some officers who have come forward to carry out these instructions for personal benefits. We have all the names of these legal and investigation officers which we will expose in time to come,” sources added.
Amongst the 19 cases, 13 are against the Rajapaksa family. They are asset cases and misappropriation of public funds against President Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, Prime Minister’s Chief of Staff Yoshitha Rajapaksa, former Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa and MP Namal Rajapaksa.
The cases which are to be closed, threatening the legal and investigation officers are as follows-
Case No: BC/ 902/ 15A – asset case against President Gotabaya Rajapaksa,
Case No: BC/2992/15- asset case against Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa
Case Nos: BC/902/15, BC/837/15, BC/ 637/15, BC/ 1769/15 – asset cases against Basil Rajapaksa
Case Nos: BC/1253/15, BC/3130/15, BC/ 1614/15 and BC/462/16 – asset cases against Namal Rajapaksa
Case No: BC/1811/16 –asset case against Yoshitha Rajapaksa
Case No: BC/ 289/15 - against Basil Rajapaksa for misusing of public property
Case No: BC/C/ 2160/16- against Yoshitha Rajapaksa on how he joined Sri Lanka Navy without the required educational qualifications
Case No: BC/11/15 – against Bhashwara Senanka and Rumi Jaufer who were involved in corruption at Sri Lanka Tourism
Case No: BC/ 438/ 16- corruption against former Minister Civil Aviation Priyankara Jayaratne
Case No: BC/1586/15 – corruption case against former Minister Priyankara Jayaratne’s Coordinating Secretary
Case No: BC/2591/15 – corruption case against former Secretary Transport Ministry, Dammika Perera on corruption
Case No: BC/ 41/ 15D- corruption case against Keheliya Rambukwella and former administration of Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation
Case No: BC/0290/17 – corruption case against Major Gen. Wijegunawardena and valuation officers
Meanwhile the following six cases filed against former Ministers and their political allies that have been withdrawn, has been set aside in order to close them without re-filing. They are-
Case No: BC/144/05- asset case against Rohitha Abeygunawardena
Case No: BC / 2399/15- Carom Board case against Mahindananda Aluthgamage
Case No: BC/ 1456/12 - Twelve cases against Keheliya Rambukwella and former Chairman Printing Corporation
Case No: BC/716/15 – corruption case against Johnston Fernando
Case No: BC/ 2051/16 – bribery and corruption case against Nissanka Senadhipathi
Case No: BC/41/15/ - corruption case against Keheliya Rambukwella (some of the important documents have already made misplaced)