Gammanpila vows to resign if vehicle transfer proved

Chamikara Weerasinghe

COLOMBO: Legal Advisor of the Jathika Hela Urumaya Udaya Gammanpila yesterday vowed to give up his political career if Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe could prove that the Mercedez Benz obtained with the duty free permit of their party Leader Ven. Ellawala Medhananda Thera, had been “transferred” to another party.

Gammanpila said that if by any chance the vehicle imported on a permit issued to JHU Parliamentarian Ven. Medhananda Thera had been transferred, and there is a Power of Attorney issued to any individual to this effect, as claimed by Wickremesinghe, all he had to do is to produce that paper.

Gammanpila was speaking at a press conference held yesterday at the headquarters of Jathika Hela Urumaya in Nugegoda.

“I challenge Wickremesinghe to present papers regarding the “vehicle transfer” on Ven. Medhananda thera’s car as claimed by him before the media,” he said.

“If he does so, I will make a public apology and withdraw all my statements made against the Opposition Leader since he called JHU monks “ Duseela Samagama”, and step down from politics for the rest of my life,” Gammanpila said.

“The Opposition Leader claims that one of his business associates had bought the Ven. Thera’s car in a transfer transaction, but we say there has not been any such transaction or any violation of the permit,” he explained.

Asked how the Opposition Leader was keeping the car in his possession, the Propaganda Secretary of the JHU, Nishantha Waranasinghe said that the vehicle had not been “transferred” but was “disposed” to a businessman supporting their party.

The JHU officials did not mention the name of the businessman stating he was one of the prominent supporters of Sinhala Nationalist Politics and they consider his service more valuable to the party than the value of the car in question.

Gammanpila said that it was not the practice of political parties of Sri Lanka to disclose the names of their funding sources. “ No party is under any obligation to reveal the names of their funding sources,” he explained.

“Wickremesinghe is keeping our MP monk’s vehicle in his possession by force. We have taken legal steps to get it back ,” he said.

He said that Wickremesinghe was trying to cause unrest in the political sphere by bringing various material out of desperation.