Tiran Christopher Alles, businessman and Democratic National Alliance Parliamentarian, has been questioned by Police over the provision of money to Tiger guerrillas. Police spokesperson Ruwan Gunasekera said Mr. Alles was grilled for two hours by the Special Investigations Unit (SIU). This Unit functions directly under Police Chief N.K. Illangakoon.
Tiran Alles MP
Earlier, Police Headquarters issued an official statement under the spokesperson’s name. Headlined “CULPRITS WHO DEFRAUDED FUNDS FOR TSUNAMI HOUSES ARRESTED”, the statement said two persons from a State agency that functioned before have already been arrested. The agency is Reconstruction and Development Agency (RADA), of which Mr Alles was Chairman. It functioned directly under former President Mahinda Rajapaksa and dealt with post-tsunami reconstruction work in the then Tiger guerrilla dominated North and East. Mr. Alles has admitted that he dealt with the guerrilla leader who went by the nom de guerre Poovannan.
The statement said: “A company entitled RADA (Reconstruction and Development Agency) was founded under the approval of the Presidential Secretariat, in 2006, to build houses for residents of North and East who lost houses during the tsunami. The chairman of the organisation was MP Tiran Alles. ”Under Treasury budget line 803, the Treasury has issued money to RADA through the President’s office.
“Two companies to build the houses were also established. One of these companies — the BMK Holdings — has been registered using fraudulent documents, and the other company, Everest Civil Engineering, has not been registered at all. Addresses of both the companies were fraudulent. ”The money given to the organisation called RADA through the President’s Office has been diverted to a company known as Oomps Textile Limited. The Managing Director of Oomps Textile is also the Managing Director of BMK Holdings cited above: a person known as Shanti Kumar Gajan Kumar. The board of directors in the company comprises his mother and siblings.
Investigations have revealed that the money received by Oomps Textile has been taken by MP Tiran Alles and former LTTE member Emil Kanthan. ”Although the Treasury has given an amount of Rs. 645 million to RADA, not a single house has been built. It has also been revealed that Rs. 125 million of the money has been defrauded via nine cheques.
”The RADA organisation was closed down in 2006. Shanti Kumar Gajan Kumar and his mother Anandi Shanti Kumar have been arrested and were due to be produced before the Magistrate Courts. The Fort Magistrate court has imposed a travel ban (impounded passports) on five members of the Directorial board of RADA including MP Tiran Alles. The complaint was lodged by the Anti-Corruption Front to the IGP and the investigations are conducted by a special unit on financial fraud of the police headquarters.”
No sooner the statement was issued, Mr. Alles summoned a news conference to deny the accusations against him. He later accused Minister Champika Ranawaka of “implicating him in a false case.” Asked at a news conference on Friday, Minister Ranawaka hit back saying; “We have information that Rs. 800 million of the State funds had been fraudulently transferred to the LTTE when our war heroes were sacrificing their lives. Persons responsible for this should be punished without taking into consideration their social status. We are not worried about personalities, but action should be taken against those responsible for such acts. We will continue our campaign and we are not scared of threats made. The legal course of action will be followed. The people who funded terrorism should be punished. They are traitors. They are not do-gooders.”
A source at the Prime Minister’s office confirmed that representations were made to Premier Ranil Wickremesinghe to obtain his assistance on behalf of MP Alles. “He checked from different state agencies. When he learnt that the issue related to dealings with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), he flatly refused to intervene in the matter,” the source added.
Courtesy: Sunday Times