|
For defamation over Sirasa TV:
Karannagoda claims Rs 500 m from Fonseka
|
Admiral
Karannagoda : Naval career
* Served as the Commandant
of the Naval and Maritime Academy.
* Director of Naval
Personnel and Training, Director Naval Projects and Plans
and Director Naval Operations.
* First ever Director
General (Operations) at Naval Headquarters.
* Has commanded four
operational Navy Commands (Northern Command, Western
Command, Eastern Command and Co-ordinator in Chief of
Security Forces and Police in Trincomalee District and the
North Central Command) on seven occasions.
* Served as Deputy Area
Commander (West, East and North). |
Former Navy Commander and presently National Security Advisor and
Highways and Road Development Ministry Secretary Wasantha Karannagoda
has sent a letter of demand to presidential candidate Sarath Fonseka
claiming Rs 500 million as damages for defamation in an interview given
by the latter to Sirasa TV wherein he had made false statements against
him (Karannagoda) to bring him into ridicule, disrepute and contempt in
the eyes of the public.
The letter of demand sent through Attorney-at-Law Athula De Silva
demands that the said sum be paid within 14 days failing which legal
action would be instituted to recover the said Rs 500 million.
The Attorney-at-Law has on the instructions of the former Navy
Commander has highlighted those utterances made in the interview as
being intentional and malicious which has tarnished the good name,
reputation and public image of his client causing him irreparable loss
and damage .
They are:
a. when my client was asked to leave the uniform in 48 hours, he
cried, truly, like a small child;
b. when my client was asked to leave in 48 hours he cried;
c. when my client was given a bogus letter purportedly appointing him
as National Security Advisor (NSA) or something similar by the
President, he took it with one hand, without even extending both hands;
d. The President got angry and shouted and scolded my client (when he
said that the President has done him an injustice) and when my client
was crying, the Secretary Defence took him to a room in the President’s
house and scolded him saying that he has stayed enough and that he (thamuse)
should leave now.
e. In contrast, you did not cry when you were asked to hand over the
Army and had you been subjected to such indignities you would not have
remained in public service.
The lawyers said he was instructed by his client to state “that the
aforesaid statement made by you is per se defamatory of him and: It is
false and false to your knowledge;
“It also is intended to bring my client to hatred, ridicule,
disrepute and contempt in the eyes of the public.
It is a false, contrived and jealous attempt to embellish your
rapidly fading public image vis-a-vis my client by a false comparison of
yourself with my client in a bid to give vent to your personal venom
against my client;
The remarks were also a vicious, diabolical, and a vengeful attempt
to tarnish the public image of his client and to portray him as a
weakling prone to emotion, cringing and grovelling before authority
quite unbecoming of the Head of the Navy (as he then was);
e) is intended to portray to the authorities and to the public of
this country that his client is a shameless person without any self
respect, and unfit to hold a position of high responsibility in public
life; and
f) the utterances was also intended to damage the high standing,
regard, and respect my client commands in the country and also with His
Excellency the President, the Defence Secretary, the Service Chiefs, the
defence establishment and the public service.
|
