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Range Bandara plays voice clips to prove he was offered inducements
View(s):United National Party Minister and Parliamentarian Palitha Range-Bandara, yesterday, provided what he called evidence to prove that he was offered millions of rupees and a cabinet posting if he joined the UPFA government. He told journalists yesterday that he received several calls from former Minister S.B. Dissanayake and other UPFA members, offering him a ministerial post if he joined them.
Mr. Range Bandara played ten voice recordings to prove his claim and said the recordings would be handed over to the Bribery Commission for investigation.
He said Mr. Dissanayake urged him to cross over to the government as soon as possible and obtain a cabinet portfolio before the Cabinet reached the 30-member limit.
He said several UPFA supporters also urged him to meet them in Colombo and told him they would come to Anamaduwa to give the money in US dollars.
Mr Range Bandara said Ranjan Ramanayake had already made a complaint to the Bribery Commission in this connection and he would await its summons to provide more information.
He claimed he had more voice clips of VVIP politicians and other persons offering bribes. However UPFA Parliamentarian Thilanga Sumathipala dismissed Mr. Range Bandara’s allegations as “absolutely false”. Meanwhile, the UNP’s crossover MPs rejected the charge that they were paid bribes to join the Rajapaksa government.
Newly appointed Plantation Industries State Minister Vadivel Suresh said, “All these allegations are false. Vadivel Suresh isn’t a man who would accept bribes”. He met Mr. Rajapaksa on October 28 and then visited UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe on October 29 before being sworn in on the same day.
Meanwhile, UNP’s Dunesh Gankanda, who obtained a state minister’s post in the Rajapaksa government, hours after he, in a Facebook post, slammed President Maithripala Sirisena and his Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, has removed the controversial post.
The post read: “Kalakanni Rajapaksa-Maithri nadaya panna dhameemata peramunata a laksha sankyatha janathaavata mage pranaamaya”. (I thank the hundred thousands of people who came to the forefront to wipe out the Rajapaksa-Maithri coalition.)