Trustee board fakes deed for Kalutara Bodhiya!

Jan 17, 2016

The Kalutara Bodhi trustee board had obtained ownership of the land on which the Bodhiya is situated through a leasing agreement, but has now prepared a fake deed to claim possession for the sacred plot of land.

Not stopping at getting a fake deed, the board had organized a function on January 08 under the auspices of president Maithripala Sirisena to hand it over in order to get it legalized and publicized. All members of the board are laity, and in 1951, possession of the land, owned by the historic Gangatilake Vihara, was obtained through a leasing agreement with nine conditions, but it has never fulfilled any of those conditions, Adhikarana Sangha Nayake of Kalutara Disava, Marapana Vijitha Thera, who has inherited the ownership, has told ‘Sathhanda’ newspaper.

The newspaper has copies of the leasing agreement and the documentations of authority, which show that the land, on which the Kalutara agent of the British rule had his official quarters, had been returned to Sangha in 1937 following a long battle. Hendigalle Vipulasiri Thera, who gave leadership to that battle, was handed over the land through a documentation of authority in 1949 by the then Malwatte Vihara Mahanayake Rambukwelle Sri Dharmarakshitha Nayaka Thera. However, leading bus company owner at the time, Sir Cyril Soyza got it leased to the Kalutara Bodhi trustee board in 1951 with the help of the then UNP regime, and there had been no other legal ownership. Chief incumbent of Siri Nikethanaramaya at Kalutara South Vijitha Thera, the only cleric to be the disciple of Vipulasara Thera, is taking legal action against the Kalutara Bodhi trustee board over its fake deed.