JVP-led Anti-Corruption Voice convener Wasantha Samarasinghe says that 118 files on allegations investigated by the Financial Crimes Investigation Division of the police and ready for prosecution are gathering dust at the Attorney General’s Department.
“We have submitted 570 files with our complaints to the FCID, CID and Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption. We know that the FCID completed investigations into 118 of them and handed them over to the AG’s Department for prosecution. Those files are lying there without further action,” Samarasinghe said on the ‘Talk with Chamuditha’ YouTube talk show.
Samarasinghe said that the FCID comprised talented investigators and conducted meticulous investigations but retired Senior DIG Ravi Waidyalankara, who headed the FCID, did not allow most of them to proceed.
“This has now been revealed and Wadiyalankara himself told the media that he was under political pressure to hold on to those investigations. This is what has happened to most of our charges against corruption by various politicians,” Samarasinghe said.
“Many years ago, we lodged some of those complaints and handed over the evidence that we had. Then there was a complaint referred by the US State Department to the Foreign Ministry of a fraud amounting to USD 57 million. The Ministry gave it to the FCID for investigation. Nobody knows what the progress of those investigations is. Later, it was found that the wife of the person mentioned responsible for this fraud, referred to by the US State Department, had formed a company with Waidyalankara’s wife.
Similarly, I lodged a complaint over a USD 70 million bribe involving the leasing of 43 acres at Transworks Square, Colombo Fort to Krrish Transworks Group Ltd., in 2016. We knew that the FCID officers investigated it, but no further action was taken. After that Waidyalankara retired. Now, he is a director of the same Krrish Transworks Group Ltd., Samaraisnghe alleged, adding that he …read more
Source:: The Island