CABINET SPOKESMAN DOWNPLAYS PLOT

Cabinet Spokesman Health Minister Dr Rajitha Senaratne yesterday downplayed the conspiracy theory of an alleged attempt on the lives of President Maithripala Sirisena and former Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa and added there was still no sufficient evidence to prove an assassination plot.

Responding to the Daily Mirror at the weekly Cabinet news briefing yesterday, Minister Senaratne said the Government Analyst had not said that the recordings of a telephone conversation between Police informer and plot informer Namal Kumara were of suspected DIG Nalaka de Silva.

“What the Government Analyst has said only that recordings were not fake and it contained telephone conversations between two parties.the CID must now find out that whether the conversations were genuinely that of Nalaka and Namal,” Minister Senaratne said.

Responding to another question, Minister Senaratne said there was no concrete evidence to arrest DIG Silva either.

“Who is this Namal? He is a Police informer who works for money. He has been paid Rs. 500,000 by the Police and he had expected more. He did not get it and this was what happened, I presume.

“Besides, not only he but all drug and ganja traffickers, underworld characters and even criminals provide information to Police,” Minister Senaratne stressed.

Minister Senaratne said there were attempts to involve India also into the assassination plot by dragging an Indian angle to the controversy with the intention to create a division between the two countries.answering another question, Minister Senaratne said former President Mahinda Rajapaksa and his fellow travellers must not get excited when the Government took action against criminals, who assassinated journalist Lasantha Wickramatunga and ruggerite Thajudeen, attacked Keith Noyahr, Upali Tennakoon and set fire in Sirasa and Siyatha.

PICS BY NISAL BADUGE