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| Saturday, 14 February 2004 |
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| Ministers refute bribery allegations Fourteen Ministers yesterday refuted the allegations of bribery and corruption made against them by a group of SLFP members on Thursday. In a signed statement, the Ministers said the allegations were "totally false and malicious" and made in an endeavour to tarnish their names in view of the April 2 General Election. Ministers Ravi Karunanayake, Mahinda Wijesekera, Rajitha Senaratne, Jayalath Jayawardena, John Amaratunga, S. B. Dissanayake, M. H. Mohamed, Tilak Marapana, K. N. Choksy, Lakshman Kiriella, Abdul Cader, Mahinda Samarasinghe, Bandula Gunawardena and G. L. Peiris said they repudiate the allegations and will contest them. The statement said: "We refer to the electronic and print media reports of the allegations of bribery and corruption made against us to the Commission for Investigation of Bribery made by a group of former People's Alliance Parliamentarians. The allegations are part and parcel of the People's Alliance's usual strategy of trying to mislead the people with falsehoods. We would also point out emphatically that the complainants are persons without personal creditworthiness, the more prominent of whom are facing allegations of criminal offences and fraud. The fact that the People's Alliance has had to rely on such persons to make the complaint against us is itself proof of the total falsity of the complaints. The very law under which the complaint has been made against us provides for the punishment by imprisonment for a term of 10 years of persons making false complaints to the Commission and also for the payment of damages by them to the persons affected by such false complaints. We will be taking action to have punished and claim damages from Jagath Pushpakumara, Mahinda Amaraweera, Neil Rupasinghe, Felix Perera, Janaka Bandara Tennekoon, Mahindananda Alutgamage, Wijemuni Vijith Zoysa, S. B. Nawinna, Pavithra Wanniarachchi, Soma Kumari Tennakoon, Arjuna Ranatunga, Rohitha Abeygunawardhana, Duminda Dissanayake, Mervyn Silva, Bharatha Lakshman Premachandra and Chandana Kathriarachchi who according to the press reports have made the false complaints against us and also Mangala Samaraweera for releasing the false complaints to the Press." |
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