PM the main defendant in bond scam - Anura Kumara Dissanayaka

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has become the main defendant in the Central Bank treasury bond scam, Chief Opposition Whip and Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) Leader Anura Kumara Dissanayaka told Parliament. 

Expressing his views during the debate on the No-Confidence Motion (NCM) on Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, the JVP Leader reiterated that all six MPs from the JVP would vote in support of the motion during tonight's vote. He added that the PM had protected Arjun Mahendran throughout the bond scam. When it comes to the bond scam, Mahendran and the PM were two sides of the same coin, he declared. 

While the JVP had questions regarding those who signed the NCM, the party agreed with the contents set out in the motion and its decision to support the motion was based on this, the JVP leader explained. 

Mr Dissanayaka acknowledged that should the NCM be passed with their support, it would provide a boost to the Rajapaksa camp. "We are not unaware of this, but it was the PM who protected the Rajapaksa to allow them to record such a boost."

He accused the Premier and President Maithripala Sirisena of walking back on their January 2015 mandate to punish corrupt individuals from the Rajapaksa regime. He detailed attempts where the Government chose not to initiate legal action against former First Lady Shiranthi Rajapaksa and former President Mahinda Rajapaksa's Chief of Staff, Gamini Senarath, among others. 

He pointed out that several local government politicians from the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) have been arrested in connection with the recent violent incidents in Kandy, while several others were currently being sought by police. While the Rajapaksa faction may have spread communal hatred, the PM and the Government had allowed such racism to grow unobstructed and this had resulted in the breakdown in confidence on the PM, he remarked. 

He also noted it was the PM who recommended that Ministers from the former regime accused of corruption, such as Susil Premajayantha, Anura Priyadarshana Yapa and  S.B. Dissanayake, be made Ministers in the Yahapalanaya Government. 

Mr Dissanayake also took aim at President Maithripala Sirisena, accusing him of protecting the likes of Gotabaya Rajapaksa and of initiating an attempt to remove the PM after suffering defeat at the Local Government polls. 

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