Information has come to light how Minister Sumedha G Jayasena is alleged to have abused her privileges as a Parliamentarian by selling her duty free vehicle permit, and subsequently using a member of the Ministerial Security Division (MSD) to intimidate the buyer of her duty free vehicle, who had evaded payment.
Minister Sumedha G Jayasena
According to a police complaint lodged to the OIC of the Monaragala Special Investigation Unit, Jayasena had said that on February 5, 2004, a person by the name of Mohammed Jemeel Mohammed Afan had visited her and asked her if she was interested to sell the Jeep she purchased from her duty free permit granted to MPs, when she had said that she wanted to sell the vehicle for Rs. 2,200,000, Afan had assured that he can sell the vehicle, which was a Tata Jeep for more than that. Subsequently, the middle man had brought a man by the name of N. W. B. Sirisena, and had said he was the buyer. The contract was signed for Rs. 2,050,000 and Rs. 1,000,000 was paid, while the balance amount was to be paid after the documents were changed to the new owner’s name.
The vehicle was given to the new owners after the advance was paid. However, the issue cropped up when despite changing the documents to the new owners name, the middle man and neither the new owner of the vehicle had paid the balance. An annoyed Jayasena had then sent members of her security staff to obtain the balance money for the vehicle, however, Asaf had continuously avoided Jayasena and her MSD personnel and she had then resorted to seek redress by lodging a complaint with the police.
According to the police report, despite the fact that Jayasena herself had abused her parliamentary privileges by selling the vehicle she purchased from the duty free car permit given to her, the fact that Asaf had avoided paying the full amount for the vehicle is a punishable offence.
In 2004, Jayasena was the Minister of Social Services and she is also the incumbent Deputy Minister of Sustainable Development and Wildlife under the current unity government. She is a member of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party.
Jayasena’s duty free vehicle permit incident came to light recently when Public Interest Rights Activist and lawyer, Nagananda Kodituwakku submitted a complaint against Director General of the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption (CIABOC), Dilrukshi Wickramasinghe to the Chairman of the Commission. In the complaint, Kodituwakku alleged that Wickramasinghe was abusing her position at CIABOC and was not investigating MPs who were abusing their tax-free permits . In July, Kodituwakku told the Supreme Court that MPs were making as much as Rs. 25 million by selling their duty free vehicles.
In August, Colombo Telegraph reported how Deputy Minister of International Trade Sujeewa Senasinghe, had imported a Toyota Land Cruiser in June 2016 using his duty free permit and had immediately transferred the vehicle to a buyer by the name of Ali Akbar Salehbhai on the very same day.
Amarasiri / October 1, 2016
RE: Minister Sumedha G Jayasena Sold Duty Free Permit Jeep And Intimidated Her Buyer Using MSD Officers
“In August, Colombo Telegraph reported how Deputy Minister of International Trade Sujeewa Senasinghe, had imported a Toyota Land Cruiser in June 2016 using his duty free permit and had immediately transferred the vehicle to a buyer by the name of Ali Akbar Salehbhai on the very same day.”
Yahapalanaya Privileges for MPs and Ministers.
VAT privileges, to be charged, for the people.
This is called Yahapalanaya.
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Amarasiri / October 1, 2016
What is Yahapalanaya, Good Governance? Minister Sumedha G Jayasena knows what it is. See how it is practiced by the Gamarala and Ruwara Rala.
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Lion / October 3, 2016
Sujeewa serasinghe is a disgraceful character.He only talks as if he is a very honest man. But his deeds are stinking. This was the man when Kolonnawa was inundated recently who send goods to the resident in the area pasting his names on the parcel. We don’t know when Ranil can get rid of this shady double dealing kojjers.
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jim softy / October 1, 2016
Hirunika was in jail. Why these people are not at least going to the paid ward of the prison.
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Dankotuwe Maama / October 1, 2016
We are not surprised, it is expected from every alleged criminal and dope master in the corruption den known as p..
the act of this slut who got into the parliament through the dirty electoral system and the democracy controlled by bunch of perverts is no different from the excesses of her colleagues.
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jim softy / October 1, 2016
This is Ranil wickramasinghe’s Yahapalana team.
Has any record saying that Ranil ever punished fraudsters in his team.
Ranil did it first by Supporting Galleon Ravi and appointing a minister out of the guy who screwed up the Central bank.
Ranil also gave minister post to anothe Liquor business owner MP.
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Aia / October 1, 2016
Mr Kodituwawakku has been doing a great job, but he should set his priorities’ right. It is not about lodging complaints, although it could help to put VIPs on notice, he should look for winning on such compliant he has been making.
This is a clear case for him to look at it, and for CT too to look at it. Selling these permits seems to be ok with politicians hence rulers as there appeared to be no legally enforceable conditions attached to granting of these permits that deter selling them on open market. Abusing privilege is one thing and breaking law is another. Abusing position of power is order of the day in SL, if not happened that way is abnormal. I don’t see even a MP being stand on a bank queue like other citizen does. Even the MP opted to stay in the queue the bank manager goes out of his seat and take with him inside. So it is SL normal, and wasting Mr Kodituwakku’s time on these is not productive. Go get those politicians who break the law. She could not have signed an enforceable agreement with the buyer if selling the permit is not allowed in law. Yes, she and other deputy minister that sold the permit have been brought to spot light, but what the voters think, are they outraged by this compared to other crimes being committed by politicians hiring criminals. Do not he think these are travails compared to some other crimes and would take valuable times of investigators? Am not saying selling permit is ok, but the problem lies in the parliament than individual recipients. I am sure there were many who could have done the same thing selling the permits, even the public officers.
Publishing these reports, hope no vendetta against these deputy ministers; selling permit is an open secret in SL, its correction should start from the parliament. Investigators or supreme court are helpless to hold them accountable for, but voters are. For voters, they can pick only out of who are contesting, whoever comes to power, he/she would sell the permit if they don’t need the vehicle. It is a smart thing, that is how others think.
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Kugan / October 1, 2016
The middle man and the buyer might be grateful they only had intimidation not the white van squad.
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Jay / October 1, 2016
Okkoma horu. All are cunning blokes no one is trustworthy and dependable. What a pity.
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Aku / October 1, 2016
Oh bhoy… about Sumedha Jayasena… Please note, this is just a small tip of her ice berg that has come to light and can guide you to some serious antics that she and her sisters son, Sumeda Bandara have been upto during MaRas rule… How did Sumeda Bandara buy so much land in the center of Monaragala town??? They are a family of thugs and know them and their antics personally for years… Sincerely hope the Authorities will dig deep…
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Aku / October 1, 2016
By the way, this Sumeda Bandara had a BIG party to celebrate him taking his 100th virgin girl, all on the pretext of doing things to the parents… Tip of the iceberg…
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KA Sumanasekera / October 1, 2016
If the so called Elite Faction pin up boy Senasinghe collected 35 Million just for the piece of , there is nothing serious about Ms Jayasinghe collecting 22 Million for her car..
And Ms Jayasinghe doesn’t look like Elite either…
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Faizer Shaheid / October 1, 2016
Ex Turpi Causa Non Oritur Actio
No action arises from an illegal transaction.
Sorry Sumedha Jayasena.
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Uthungan / October 1, 2016
Frazier Shaheid
Yes. Briefly stated.
The shrewd middleman and the buyer have got a good bargain.
They have to only back over ther shoulders for the goon squad but hopefully needn’t worry about any litigation launched by the MP.
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Willy / October 1, 2016
COPLAIN to the MAHASANGA
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Douglas / October 1, 2016
Aia: Your analysis of this problem is very correct. It is the decision that must be changed, in that, the sale of the permit or transfer of the vehicle must not be allowed. Without that being done, pointless challenging that “Sale” or “Transfer” in courts, and it is a waste of time and money. What is necessary, as I said in my earlier comment, is to carry on a campaign to educate the voters not to vote any more to all those who received permits and imported vehicles. That awareness has not been dished out to the people yet and that is why these rouge Parliamentarians are going about pilfering public property and money in their own way.
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justice / October 1, 2016
Knowing that it is morally wrong, while selling vehicle permits, though this may not have been explicitly stated when such permits were given, is a crime.
In another country, excess ‘relocation’ expenses claimed by lawmakers, are being repaid after it was mentioned in parliament.
http://www.nationalobserver.com/2016/09/25/news/more-liberals-repay-expense-claims-following-lead-pms-aides
Will we, in Sri Lanka, ever reach this state of moral correctness?
Does this lady minister expect people to vote for her again?
The police appear to have ‘double standards’ in this matter.
Vehicle permit sales are only the ‘tip of the iceberg’- of corruption.
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garawi / October 1, 2016
Go for all corrupt ministers , including Senasinghe, who has sold his vehicle!
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shiraz bahar / October 1, 2016
messing in a dirty lenan of a lady is a sort of reportage, it is.
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Ben Dover / October 2, 2016
Hmm…. a point of order if I may.
The headline speaks of a ‘permit’ and the article begins with:
“Information has come to light how Minister Sumedha G Jayasena is alleged to have abused her privileges as a Parliamentarian by selling her duty free vehicle permit…,”
while the actual transaction was in respect of the Tata Jeep (which quite well may have been purchased using the permit.
Now, I have no truck with the minister on question, or all those other charlatans who abuse the tax free permits at tax-payer expense to fatten their already bloated belies and prime bottoms, BUT I would counsel CT to not resort to needlessly sensationalising the misdemeanour in question by clever sleight of the pen.
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Upul / October 2, 2016
All these bloody crooks are doing politics not to help the poor constituents. They are doing politics to uplift their standard of living by stealing and doing all sorts of illegal activities. The poor constituents have to pay for all their misdeeds by the way of taxes. This happened earlier, happening now and will happen in future in this land.
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Nihal Gunatilake / October 2, 2016
Hello – YAHAPALANAYA AT ITS BEST. FINE! GO LIKE THAT. DITTA DHARMA WEDENANEEYA KARMAYA WILL FOLLOW. FIND A GOOD LAWYER WITHIN 3 YEARS TO GO TO THE FCID JAYASENA.WHAT IS YOUR DEFENSE – “MY POLITICAL ENEMIES ARE BEHIND THESE”
ME RATA HEDENENNATHI RATAK – KANAGATUI- BYE- Nihal Gunatilake
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Lion / October 3, 2016
This women will be in the lap of MR if there is a slightest chance of later being coming in to power.
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Glamseller / October 4, 2016
What surprises me is the price Rs. 2.2 million for a TATA Jeap. One must checkout how many vehicles she has sold in the past, after buying duty free over the years she was Minister. This could be checked if there is a will.
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Ben / October 4, 2016
Well said
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