On My Beat: Gen. Fonseka to file election petition contesting Rajapaksa’s victory
By K T Rajasingham
Colombo, 16 February (Asiantribune.com):
On the direction of the Supreme Court, lawyers of Retired General Sarath Fonseka were allowed to meet him at the Senior Officer Apartment, where he is presently quartered, to obtain his signature to file the election petition, challenging the victory of President Mahinda Rajapaksa at the last Presidential election, held on January 26.
Lawyers Asoka Somaratne and Kelum Dharshana Kumarasinghe were with Sarath Fonseka for nearly 30 minutes and obtained his signatures in the appropriate documents to file election petition.
Also yesterday Anoma Fonseka and Lawyer Wijeyadasa Rajapaksa visited Fonseka. Also it is learnt that Anoma as usual brought lunch and dinner for Fonseka.
Later in the afternoon, Anoma visited Fonseka for the second time, it is reliably learnt.
In the meantime, sources told that the recording of the summary of evidence continued for the second consecutive day. On Sunday they have recorded the evidences of three witnesses and yesterday that of five witnesses. It is learnt Sarath Fonseka has not sat in the place where the recording of summary of evidence is continuing.
Asian Tribune learnt that the recording of the evidence might continue for another couple of days and once it is completed, the Chief of Staff would submit the evidences with his recommendation to the Commander of the Army.
Once the Commander finds that there are enough prima facie evidence after having consultation with the Attorney General, then the Commander would consider the constituting the Court Martial arrangements.
A copy of the recorded summary of evidence too will be handed over to Sarath Fonseka, so that he could get ready for his defence at the Court Martial.
In the meantime it is learnt that the Colombo Fort Magistrate has issued an arrest warrant against Dhanuna Tillekaratna over the multi-million dollar HiCorp deal, defence contracts which was awarded when Gen. Fonseka was the army chief.
It was Asian Tribune that exposed Danuna Tilakaratne’s underhand arms deal to the country for the first time-- on 22 November 2009. Every bullet fired at innocent Tamil civilians fetched kickbacks to Gen Fonseka family.
Asian Tribune has also reliably learnt that Apsara Fonseka, the eldest daughter of Sarath Fonseka and the wife of Dhanuna Tilakaratne have managed to slip out of the country and is back in Oklahoma.
The police are set to be looking for Dhanuna Tilakaratne and up to the time of writing this report he continues to avoid arrest.
Also according to reports the Police Criminal Investigation Department (CID) on Friday had sealed four safety lockers belonging to Dhanuna Thilakaratne’s mother Ashoka Tilakaratne in a private bank in Colombo, sources reported.
But the CID on Monday, February 15 had opened the safety lockers in the presence of Dhanuna Thilakaratne’s mother Asoka Tilakeratne and had found around 525,000 US dollars and 15 million Sri Lankan rupees.
When the CID recorded a statement from Asoka Tilakeratne, she claimed that the cash belonged to General (Retired) Sarath Fonseka and that she had agreed to deposit it in her safety locker.
Asoka Tilakeratne is reported to have helped Gen. Fonseka’s wife Anoma to operate a hair dressing saloon within the Panagoda Army Headquarters premises on behalf of the Seva Wanitha Unit of the Sri Lanka Army. Asoka Tilakeratne had ceremonially declared it opened.
In the meantime it is learnt that police is looking for the retired Colonel Sujit Jayasekera for questioning.
- Asian Tribune -
Comments
The poll itself was free and fair
The Elections Commissioner, The Independent Election Monitors and the Secretary General of the Commonwealth have all given a clean bill of health to the poll on the 26th January, thus endorsing President Rajapaksa's massive victory over Sarath Fonseka. Use of State resources were very high on this occassion and the practice just followed the trend set by the Presidents predecessors. It is very unlikely however whether one could conclude from this that voters were swayed by State propaganda to such an extent that 1.8 million people could have been swayed by it. To arrive at such a conclusion would be to insult the intelligence of our voters. Having said this, use of State resources to support one candidate is not democratic and not fair or right. Use of these resources is nothing new, and has been progressively increasing over decades. This needs to stop as no one will be able to hazard a guess as to where we will be in another decade unless something is done to contain it and bring about some rules applicable to all sides. President Rajapaksa now has another huge responsibility on his shoulders besides unifying the Nation after decades of conflict and war. He needs to set in motion some rules that must govern the proper conduct of pre election campaigning, and some rules to stop or minimise the misuse of State resources to support the incumbant government supported candidate at a Presidential election or a government seeking re election. He must work with the Opposition parties to introduce these rules and as President, make sure they are followed. It is immoral not to do so.
Due Process of Law
At least after all the commotion the General has resorted to follow the due process of law. It seems this General has a difficulty to follow the law, even in his young officer days doing stuff unbecoming of an officer. His election speeches were disgusting, and the people around him could not correct him. The people around him only were there to grab power by any means. However, if the General were to come in to power all of them would have their last laugh. General would have carried everything by himself parachuting people from the army to run all the important jobs in the country. He would have militarized the government through legitimate way amply supported by the stupid opposition. What he may have done with such powers vested him through Presidency yet to be understood.