CID probe must go ahead, says Chief Government Whip

Uditha Kumarasinghe, Rajmi Manatunga and Irangika Range

KOTTE: Chief Government Whip Minister Jeyaraj Fernandopulle requested the Speaker to look into yesterday’s statement made by Gampaha District UNP Parliamentarian John Amaratunga in Parliament that the CID should not conduct further investigations into the incident where he received a death threat by an anonymous telephone call.

The Minister said John Amaratunga gave huge publicity on this issue by providing information even to international Web-sites. “Therefore, we cannot simply consider this matter whatsoever, allowing the CID to stop its investigations. This is a serious question for the Government.”

The Minister was responding to a statement made by the Speaker to the House regarding a letter sent to him by the Director of the CID on the investigation of MP’s incident.

Speaker W.J.M. Lokubandara said CID Director in a letter sent to him has stated that there is no need to conduct further investigations to this incident.

The letter has further stated that in future, if the MP receives such anonymous telephone calls of this nature, he should immediately inform the CID.

Minister Fernandopulle questioned as to why the CID has stopped investigations in this incident.

“This is a serious question for Parliament and the Government. If a Parliamentarian is subjected to a death threat over the phone while he is getting ready to come to Parliament, it cannot be considered as a trivial matter. Amaratunga is a senior Parliamentarian and a former Minister who was in charge of the Police. So we should protect him.”

“The MP had got massive publicity on the Web-sites including the TamilNet regarding this incident. If the MP is now telling that the CID should stop investigations, it should be investigated. This is an incident which has put the Government into a difficulty,” the Minister said.

Fernandopulle said the CID has questioned the private vehicle company about the vehicles given by Parliament to the Deputy Chairman of Committees Ramalingam Chandrasekeran. Therefore this incident should be further investigated. John Amaratunga said he is thankful Minister Fernandopulle about the great affection shown to him by the Government.

He said he has five phones in his house. Therefore it was difficult to identify from which phone this anonymous call had come. The Minister said if Amaratunga wanted, he would have checked it from the SLT.

Speaker W.J.M. Lokubandara said if the Government wants, he will take steps to further investigate this matter.