Govt. in a mess over Basil’s Malwana property 

Mar 18, 2017

The Attorney General’s Department is trying to prevent the auctioning of the 16-acre property with a palatial house at Malwana said to belong to Basil Rajapaksa, reports say. Legal experts say the AG’s Department and the FCID will have to share the blame if this attempt, being made at the instigation of certain government politicians, succeeds.

The Pugoda magistrate has ordered the auctioning of the property. The state has valued the property at Rs. 208 million. But, AG’s Department officials were due to ask the magistrate to halt the auction. This is insanity. In the legal process, Basil was the first to be asked about the ownership of the property. He said he was not the owner. Then, Tiru Nadesan, husband of Nirupama Rajapaksa was asked and he answered that he had sold it. Furthermore, the notorious architect Muditha Jayakody, who had been given state contracts without tender-calling, said the property did not belong to him. Therefore, the magistrate ordered the public auctioning of the property without an owner.

The main distortion in this matter was the Rajapaksa darling Muditha Jayakody being made a state witness. Gotabhaya had given him contracts without calling for tenders, and without stopping there, he had paid him in excess. When obtaining the tenders, Muditha had given false information to the relevant institutions.

All these have been revealed, but Muditha has written to the commissioner of Inland Revenue saying that the valuation reports submitted when he had been dealing with the Malwana property were wrong and asking that he be reimbursed the tax money paid. When shameless thieves are given leniency, what they do is taking the entire judicial process as a joke. That is the result of having made a state witness out of a thief who should be sent behind bars for many years.

The government cannot halt the auction ordered by the magistrate. If it wants, it can buy the property at the auction. However, the government is influencing the AG’s Department to halt the auction. When this attempt, being made due to the wants of certain government politicians, is foiled, the blame will go to the AG’s Department and the FCID. Then, the ‘Yahapaalana’ politicians who influenced them will not be caught. Basil will not be caught. Muditha will not be caught. In the end, there will be no one to accept the blame.