Expose: Rajapaksa Advisor’s Son Millionaire Black Money Investor Was Recruited By BBC
December 6, 2013 |
Thisara Aravinda Rathuwithana, a millionaire black money investor and the son of Sri Lankan PresidentMahinda Rajapaksa’s advisor, astrologer Piyasena Rathuwithana, was recruited as a journalist by the BBC, Colombo Telegraph can reveal today.
“The person who goes by the name Thisara Rathuwithana and who is currently an employee of BBC Sinhala Service is none other than the son of President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s advisor, astrologer Piyasena Rathiwithana,” a source close to BBC Sinhala Service told Colombo Telegraph.
Thisara Aravinda Rathuwithana
In a shocking revelation, our source told us that the suspended BBC’s Sinhala Service chief, Priyath Liyanage, has recruited Rathuvithana without disclosing the obvious conflict of interest to the BBC authorities.
Liyanage himself joined the BBC while a deportation order had been served on him by the UK home Office; he later married the daughter of a Secretary in the Sri Lankan High Commission in London.
Black money investor, Thisara Rathuvithana at the time he was recruited to the BBC, had no journalistic experience whatsoever just like his boss Priyath Liyange . While working in BBC he invested millions of his black money in Lalith Kotelawala’s now disgraced company, Golden Key, which collapsed in December 2008.
To avoid google search the BBC misspelled his name as “Aravinda Thisara Rathuwithane” the source further told Colombo Telegraph.
Following the suspension of BBC Sinhala Service Editor Priyath Liyange. the BBC has launched a probe into all aspects of the Sinhala Service’s activities, Colombo Telegraph learns. BBC Sinhala Service journalists are being asked by the BBC to cooperate in the ongoing investigation accompanied by lawyers or trade union representatives if they wish.
Early this year the BBC Sinhala head was sent to follow a BBC course on Journalistic ethics after Liyange was caught giving letters of recommendation to Sri Lanka government to approve interest free loans to his deputy Chandana Keerthi Bandara and to the Colombo reporter Elmo Fernando.
Colombo Telegraph has been unable to reach Rathuwithane for comment since BBC declined to give his contact details.
