Ms. Eknaligoda challenges Arundika to public debate

Missing journalist Prageeth Eknaligoda’s wife Sandhya yes

terday chal- lenged MP Arundhika Fernando for an open debate to validate his recent statements

that Mr. Eknaligoda was hiding in France and that she had communicated with him regularly.

“If Arundhika Fernando met him as he says he did, he should have immediately informed the Sri Lankan Embassy in France and brought him home. He could have done it easily. As a parliamentarian he has the power to do that but he had not done so,” she said.

Ms. Eknaligoda said when she heard the statement made by Mr. Fernando in parliament last week she had called his mobile phone to verify the information but his phone was continuously switched off and that she could not reach him.

She said she had got in touch with the

If Arundhika Fernando met him , he should have immediately informed the Sri Lankan Embassy in France and brought him

home.

French embassy which had also confirmed that Mr. Eknaligoda was not in France.

Ms. Eknaligoda said journalist Manjula Wediwardena who is alleged to have introduced Mr. Eknaligoda to Mr. Fernando in France had contacted her immediately after the statement in parliament and said that whatever was told about him was utterly false.

She said she believed the statement made by Mr. Fernando was meant to ease the controversy surrounding her husband’s disappearance before the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in November.

Ms. Eknaligoda said the information Mr. Fernando had provided so far was vague as he had said he had met him in January but did not specify as to whether it was this year or a previous year.

Journalist Manjula Wediwardena introduced Mr. Eknaligoda to me in France