Remanded MP Ranjan Ramanayake Addresses Parliament and Challenges Govt to Appoint a Presidential Commission to Investigate his Leaked Telephone Conversation Recordings: Says “I am willing to appear before the commission with all the information I have.”

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By Saman Indrajith

Former Deputy Minister Ranjan Ramanayake, yesterday (21) apologised to all those who had got into trouble due to the leak of recordings of his telephone conversations with him.

Speaking during the Parliamentary debate, MP Ramanayake said it had not been his intention to make the recordings of his conversations public. “The recordings were seized by police from my home violating my privileges as an MP. I only kept them secure in hard disks for my own protection as this is a country where people constantly change their opinions,” he said.

MP Ramanayake claimed he had recorded his phone calls as part of his crusade against corruption.

“To all the informers, judges, government servants and CID officers whom I have had conversations with over the phone, I say that we did all this not to release the recordings to the public, but to put behind bars those who had robbed the hard-earned money of innocent people of this country. We haven’t given up this fight.”

The former deputy minister also said he was tabling recordings of his entire phone conversations in Parliament as currently those connected to the government were releasing recordings selectively to gain political mileage.

The UNP MP suspended by his party is currently in remand custody for his alleged attempts to influence the judiciary. He was brought to Parliament by the prison officers to take part in yesterday’s debate.

Speaking for about 30 minutes, Ramanayake, challenged the government to appoint a presidential commission to investigate his leaked phone recordings. “I have heard Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa say that the government is planning to appoint a commission to probe the issue. I fully support this and am willing to appear before the commission with all the information I have.”

Earlier in the day, MP Ramanayake asked permission from Speaker Karu Jayasuriya to raise a privilege issue. However, the Speaker denied the MP’s request on the grounds that Standing Orders did not permit the MP to raise a privilege issue at that juncture. He asked the MP to make a request to the Chief Opposition Whip asking to be allocated time to speak during the Parliamentary debate.

Courtesy:The Island