More revelations of president’s photographer!
- Friday, 01 August 2014
The ongoing confidential investigation by the Presidential Secretariat against Sudath Silva, the official photographer to the president, has exposed many illegal activities he had committed for a long period by using the president’s name, a senior official at the secretariat told ‘Lanka News Web.’
As the president’s official photographer, he draws a monthly salary of Rs. 60,000 and uses a jeep maintained by the Presidential Secretariat. Sudath Silva is now building a multi-storey luxury house at Pelawatte in Battaramulla, which has already cost nearly Rs. 60 million, the investigators have found out.
\His main income method is the photographing of local and foreign businessmen during their meetings with the president – taking their snaps chatting with the president, having tea or meals with him – prepare an album and sell it for between Rs. 400,000 and Rs. 600,000. In addition, when Sri Lankans exiled in Europe return home, he takes them to see the president, get their photographs and frame them and sell them for around Rs. 50,000 per photograph. In that manner, he has earned a massive sum from Sri Lankans living in Italy.
It is through Sudath Silva that Sinhalese who had sought refuge in European countries by claiming that Mahinda Rajapaksa was going to kill them, get to know the president closely. Most Sinhalese in Europe say that Sudath Silva comes to their countries empty-handed, but leave with various rewards given him by the Sri Lankans who undergo immense hardships to earn the money. At times, Sudath Silva cannot carry with him the rewards he receives, and gets them sent by container free of charge. To everyone, he promises an opportunity to meet the president.
The other fortune of Sudath Silva is the Geneva meeting. He volunteers to organize the Sinhalese in Europe to take them every year to Geneva for protests, as he knows what he can get. Sudath Silva collects money from local Tamil businessmen, purportedly to take the protestors to Geneva. In addition, part of the money given through diplomatic missions ends up in his pocket. The Geneva protests are a complete hoax. Most of the Sri
Lankans are dead drunk by the time they reach Geneva, and only those who can stand steady take part in the demonstration for about five minutes, then throw away their placards and go shopping. What Sudath Silva wants is to take photographs of them in the act of protesting. Then, he too, joins them in their shopping, that is to con them and get free gifts from them. Sudath Silva needs just five minutes to take photographs to convince the president that a very successful protest had taken place. Sri Lankans in Europe say that the only person benefiting from the protests is Sudath Silva. The president too, believes that Sudath Silva is a very committed man. His commitment is only to fill his pockets, and not on behalf of Sri Lanka.
In addition to such swindling, the investigation has also exposed acts of nepotism by Sudath Silva. He has been able to send his sister by the name Ranjani Silva, who is without any qualification and followed only a floricultural course, and her entire family to the Sri Lankan high commission in London. She is attached to the visa consular division of the high commission. Sudath Silva has also sent a relative of his to the Sri Lankan embassy in Italy.
Sudath Silva also mediated in the posting of Rani Bulathwela, also the SLFP branch office president in the UK, to a top position at the Sri Lankan embassy in Italy, after she lost her lawyer’s license in England. Rani Bulathwela is a very close friend of former president Chandrika Kumaratunga, and Sudath Silva created the link between her and president Mahinda Rajapaksa. Taking a sheaf of betel, Rani Bulathwela arrived at the Temple Trees, went down on her knees and worshipped the feet of the president and sought forgiveness from him. In return, she does anything Sudath Silva wants to get done. It is through her that he usurps at the Sri Lankan embassy in Italy. When Sudath Silva comes to London, accommodation is provided at Rani Bulathwela’s home, but he still gets the accommodation payment given him by the Presidential Secretariat.
The investigation report is due to be handed over to the president in a few days, said the Presidential Secretariat official. The official said, however, that Sudath Silva will escape any punishment and continue to sell the president in the future too.
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