{"id":200217,"date":"2019-03-30T04:29:52","date_gmt":"2019-03-29T22:59:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=200217"},"modified":"2019-03-30T21:35:33","modified_gmt":"2019-03-30T16:05:33","slug":"derana-tv-chairman-says-he-accepted-the-post-to-avoid-going-to-jail-he-also-confessed-he-likes-smoking-cannabis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/derana-tv-chairman-says-he-accepted-the-post-to-avoid-going-to-jail-he-also-confessed-he-likes-smoking-cannabis\/","title":{"rendered":"Derana TV Chairman Says He Accepted The Post To Avoid Going To Jail &#8211; He Also Confessed He Likes Smoking Cannabis"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Chairman Derana group of companies <a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Dilith+Jayaweera\"><strong>Dilith Jayaweera<\/strong><\/a> speaking at the opening of a book launch openly confessed that he took over the Chairman post of Derana to prevent himself from going to jail.<\/p>\n<p>A shocked member of the audience speaking to Colombo Telegraph questioned &#8220;Does it mean that there are conditions to prevent people from going to jail? I am confused. Does it mean media bosses are exonerated even though they break the law? Is it because politically they can be blackmailed thereafter to run elections campaigns and also cover up the sins of politicians? &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Dilith-Jayaweera-1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-200219\" src=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Dilith-Jayaweera-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"901\" height=\"601\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Dilith-Jayaweera-1.jpg 960w, https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Dilith-Jayaweera-1-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Dilith-Jayaweera-1-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Dilith-Jayaweera-1-128x86.jpg 128w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 901px) 100vw, 901px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The Derana Chairman shockingly also went on to say that he also enjoys smoking a &#8220;joint&#8221; whenever he gets an opportunity, even though he reiterated that he is not addicted to it.<\/p>\n<p>The phrase &#8220;Smoking a joint&#8221; that the Derana Chairman Jayaweera used is widely understood publicly in Sri Lanka, as smoking of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=cannabis\"><strong>cannabis<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Even though many countries in the world have legalized the smoking of cannabis, it is still prohibited and illegal in Sri Lanka and could possible send offenders to jail.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"border: none; overflow: hidden;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/plugins\/video.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fchaturaalwisfans%2Fvideos%2F2254394324835506%2F&amp;show_text=0&amp;width=476\" width=\"476\" height=\"476\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I may be a Chairman of a big group of companies, but I also like to travel in a tuk tuk and eat at the famous wayside cafe Pilawoos,&#8221; Jayaweera went on to say.<\/p>\n<p>The flamboyant Chairman of the Derana group Jayaweera elaborating further during his speech stressed on the importance of happiness. Finding happiness for many has now become a problem.<\/p>\n<p>People find happiness in many ways he went on to say.<\/p>\n<p>Some smoke cannabis, some like to get intoxicated from alcohol, whilst some like to find happiness whilst chatting with friends.<\/p>\n<p>The greatest of happiness we can be derive from are the principles we can learn from the teachings from Siddhartha he went on to say.<\/p>\n<p>However no where in Siddharta&#8217;s teachings is it ever mentioned that happiness can be derived from smoking of cannabis.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier Jayaweera was investigated for stock market manipulation through the infamous pump and dump schemes by the FCID in 2015. But after the sacked former FCID boss DIG Ravi Waidyalankara began making \u201cdeals\u201d with criminal and crooked elements of the Rajapaksa regime he concluded the case.<\/p>\n<p>In 2015 the Colombo Magistrate\u2019s Court ordered a full report on the controversial share transactions of then SEC Chairman Nalaka Godahewa, Dilith Jayaweera, Sarvajana Anandaraj Ameresekere and Varuni Amungama who is Jayaweera\u2019s business partner at TRIAD and Derana. Jayaweera and several other high net worth investors are under scrutiny by various law enforcement agencies for alleged involvement in share price manipulation and insider trading at the Colombo Stock Exchange. A FCID case into alleged share manipulation by Citrus Leisure, the company headed by Jayaweera has been referred to the Attorney General as well as several other Securities and Exchange Commission related cases that have implicated the media boss. <strong><em>(By Janaka Ranaweera)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":200219,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,2186,1,2375],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-200217","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-featured-news","category-news","category-stories"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Derana TV Chairman Says He Accepted The Post To Avoid Going To Jail - 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