AN ATTEMPT TO COVER UP BOND SCAM

Hambantota District MP Namal Rajapaksa on Friday claimed the New York Times report on China offering money to former President Mahinda Rajapaksa for his election fund is an effort to make Hambantota harbour a victim of the tug of war between the western and Eastern world.

During a media briefing convened at Carlton House in Tangalle, the ancestral home of the Rajapaksa family, Mr. Rajapaksa said a similar report was published by Reuters in 2015 following which an investigation was initiated by what he called the ‘illegal FCID’ stopping construction work at the Port City and the Hambantota harbour.

The former President’s son said after an 18 month long investigation the construction work of the Port City and Hambantota harbour were given to the same companies and now again it is being told that a private company had funded his father’s election campaign. “This is purely an attempt to make Sri Lanka and the Hambantota harbour victims of the tug of war between the West and the East. This is a diabolical lie.this is an attempt by the yahapalana government to cover up the Central Bank bond scandal” he added. He questioned whether Deputy Minister Ranjan Ramanayake who had lodged a complaint with the FCID based on the New York Times report had lodged similar complaints on people receiving cheques from bond fraudsters, the allegation that the FCID had taken a bribe of Rs.75 million or the ETI issue. Now Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe is going to sell the Mattala airport. We will see what will happen if the airport is sold. This government is trying to sell national assets when they cannot run the government, the MP alleged.