FCID officers' narrow escape, a fiction by Gota – Ravi Vidyalankara

Feb 13, 2017

When contacted over a weekend ‘Sathhanda’ newspaper article, director of the FCID senior DIG Ravindra Vidyalankara refuted its content and accused ex-defence secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa and his loyalists of having fabricated a falsehood.

He said he was well aware of the protocol to follow when visiting a foreign country to investigate crime, and that he has never violated such traditions. Vidyalanka said he or the FCID had nothing to do with what had happened in the UAE.

Vidyalankara said that they had gone to the US for an internal fact finding mission after informing the State Department in advance through the diplomatic mission. He denied claims the FCID had gone there to question a person by the name Malraj de Silva, or that FBI lawyers acting on behalf of him tried to arrest them. The senior DIG said the FBI or the Sri Lankan consul general Swarna Perera could be contacted to verify the truth of what he said. The foreign ministry got us visas to go to the US, he said, adding that those who swindled Sri Lankan public’s money knew they would face a dangerous situation and want to sabotage the investigations.

The media loyal to Gotabhaya Rajapaksa is exaggerating such attempts, he said, adding the result of their investigation would be known soon. All the investigations were conducted with FBI collaboration and even a farewell dinner was hosted for the FCID officials by the FBI, he added.