Bribery commission acquits president’s relative!

Friday, 27 June 2014 

Following the Bribery Commission’s withdrawal of a bribery charge against Yasalal Samarasinghe Dissanayake, a valuer at the Maharagama East branch of the Department of Inland Revenue and a very close relative of president Mahinda Rajapaksa from his mother’s side, the Colombo chief magistrate’s court has acquitted him.

Officials of the commission caught Yasalal red handed, in the act of accepting a Rs. 400,000 bribe from one Rasanga Lanka Pathberiya, a resident of Pore, Athurugiriya, at Wijerama Mawatha in Colombo on 30 October last year.

Remanded upon his arrest, he had got himself admitted to the prison hospital, and before less than two weeks elapsed, was enlarged on two sureties of Rs. 500,000 each by Colombo chief magistrate Gihan Pilapitiya.

According to the due procedure, a person caught in the act of obtaining a bribe amounting to such a sum should remain in remand prison for at least three months before being allowed bail. In breach of all the due procedures, it is surprising that the president’s relative from his mother’s side had received bail in less than two weeks on two sureties.

It is more surprising that in six months’ time, he had been cleared of all the charges and got acquitted. This man will return to the Maharagama East branch of the Inland Revenue Department within the next few days. It is possible that the Bribery Commission of Jagath Balapatabendi will take this Rasanga Lanka Pathberiya of Pore, Athurugiriya to court on a charge of making a false complaint, and punish him.