Wednesday, May 27, 2015

Question over Former CJ's statement

WEDNESDAY, 27 MAY 2015

Reliable sources said that the controversial statement made by former chief justice Sarath N.Silva on arrest of the VIP suspects for alleged financial crimes is a well-designed propaganda campaign to influence the public opinion and the opinion of the judges who sit for the fundamental rights petition filed by former minister Basil Rajapaksa.

This FR case will be taken up before the Supreme Court today before a three Judge Bench comprising Chief Justice K. Sri Pawan, Priyasath Dep and Rohini Marasinghe.

According to the sources this propaganda campaign has been planned at a meeting held at a room in the Organization of Professional Associations (OPA) with the participation of Sarath silva, Wimal Weerawansa, Vasudeva Nanayakara and a person called Nath Amarakoon. Their opinion has been that challenging the ongoing financial crime investigations, arrest of the people and the questioning the legality of the judicial proceeding by a former CJ would impact the opinion of the judges and would help to get a favorable judgment for the petitioner.

They also planned to use the still strong media relation of former president Mahinda Rajapaksa. As a result this baseless allegations and controversial statement of the former CJ has received a wider publicity.

Challenging the role of the Financial Crime Investigation Division (FCID) of police, ongoing investigations and arrest of some VIPs Sarath Silva said, “If I was a judge I would have called the IGPand arrested the IGP. Remanding or arresting a person is not a joke. You have to be very carefulwhen making that decision; this is something that I always told judges when I was on the bench,”However, legal experts said that this whole statement of the former CJ is baseless and they surprised the misleading statement he has made.