Slain rugby player Wasim Thajudeen’s case was highlighted once again when State Minister, Highways and Road Development Ranjan Ramanayaka joining the Committee Stage debate in Parliament demanded the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) summon Opposition Leader Mahinda Rajapaksa over his recent remarks on the slain ruggerite.
State Minister Ramanayke said it is strange that when there is a judicial order that Thajudeen’s death was a murder, the Opposition Leader says it was an accident. Therefore, the Opposition Leader’s statement on the murder amounts to contempt of court as he has contradicted what the court has already determined.
Ramanayake told the House that anybody with common sense knows that one cannot drive a vehicle along Park Road at 175 kmph. Even at motor racing or night races such speed cannot be imagined.
“I would like to tell listeners that this amounts to criticising a judicial order. The Leader of the Opposition didn’t make his statement in Parliament but on a private television channel.” Ramanayake called upon CID Director Shani Abeysekara and DIG Ravi Seneviratne to take the allegation seriously and record Rajapaksa’s statement.
“A man with common sense knows that one cannot go at 175 kmph along that road. Thajudeen’s body was not on the driver’s seat but on the passenger seat. Thajudeen had even bought a bottle of water from a supermarket 22 minutes prior to the accident.
“It seems like Thajudeen decided to buy a bottle of water, throw away his wallet and mobile phone some five kilometres away before crashing his vehicle on a parapet wall. This is very strange.The three doctors who held the postmortems had said it was a murder. Important parts of his organs had disappeared. However, Opposition Leader Rajapaksa says it is an accident and not a murder, and an attempt to implicate his sons.”
“Thajudeen was not a politician. He was a young ruggerite. Why was he killed? Why does the Muslim community remain silent when an internationally reputed rugby player was killed? There was a rumour recently that we would exhume Thajudeen’s body on the eve of elections and conduct elections by ‘selling’ his body. It was not us who exhumed his body. It is the present Opposition Leader and former President Rajapaksa who once again exhumed Thajudeen’s body and turned it into a controversial topic. Therefore, I request the judges and those who are keen on this incident to question Rajapaksa as to how the ruggerite drove his vehicle at 175 kmph along Park Road. It is an unbelievable story. After this incident Senior DIG Anura Senanayake had received 36 telephone calls from Temple Trees. What was the reason to call the DIG at midnight? Six pages of the Daily Operator Report book had been removed. Those who committed this murder are once again attempting to come back to power.”
JVP Kalutara District MP Dr.Nalinda Jayatissa said the President addressing a Bribery Commission event had said that he appealed to the Singaporean Prime Minister to return former Central Bank Governor Arjuna Mahendran but that was not heeded. Now Singapore has given a diplomatic response and says that Sri Lanka has not submitted information required under Singapore´s extradition laws to return Mahendran.
Responding to MP Jayatissa, Chief Opposition Whip MP Mahinda Amaraweera said all documents needed for the extradition of Mahendran were completed. Necessary information has been diplomatically communicated in writing to the relevant authorities in Singapore. MP Amaraweera told the House that President Sirisena would detail the Singaporean authorities and Lankans shortly on the steps he has taken to get Mahendran back to the country.
The President has done everything in his capacity and he also made a private request when he met the Singaporean Prime Minister.
At this point of the debate, MP Jayatissa remarked that he requested a clarification from the Government but instead it was Opposition MP Amaraweera who replied.
UNP MP Mujibur Rahuman observed that it clearly proves that the President sides with the Opposition today.