{"id":201161,"date":"2019-05-02T16:05:14","date_gmt":"2019-05-02T10:35:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=201161"},"modified":"2019-05-03T10:32:51","modified_gmt":"2019-05-03T05:02:51","slug":"wijeyadasa-rajapakshes-axe-against-hemasiri-linked-to-deal-for-avant-garde","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wijeyadasa-rajapakshes-axe-against-hemasiri-linked-to-deal-for-avant-garde\/","title":{"rendered":"Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe’s Axe Against Hemasiri Linked To Deal For Avant Garde"},"content":{"rendered":"

Colombo Telegraph can reveal that former Justice Minister Wijeyadasa\u00a0Rajapakshe<\/strong><\/a>‘s reasons for making police complaints against former\u00a0Secretary to the Ministry of Defence Hemasiri Fernando<\/strong><\/a> who is an ex naval officer is\u00a0linked to a lucrative contract he was pushing the Defence Ministry to\u00a0give the highly controversial private security firm Avant Garde<\/strong><\/a> which\u00a0is run by Rajapakshe’s bosom friend Major (Rtd) Nissanka Senadhipathi<\/strong><\/a>.\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Rajapakshe who has been a strong backer of Senadhipathi and his Avant\u00a0Garde even as the security firm that ran floating armouries by\u00a0illegally leasing weapons from the Sri Lankan military while Gotabaya\u00a0Rajapaksa<\/strong><\/a> ran security affairs was trying to get new licences for the\u00a0company a few months ago Colombo Telegraph learns. This is even as\u00a0Senadhipathi remains on bail for defrauding hundreds of millions of\u00a0rupees of funds from the state and Avant Garde has multiple cases and\u00a0investigations ongoing about their activities using state resources\u00a0and funds under the auspices of Gotabaya Rajapaksa. Nissanka\u00a0Senadhipathy and his Avant Garde still owes Rs 2.8 billion in dues to\u00a0the Sri Lankan Government which is yet to be paid for profits earned\u00a0through its Floating Armoury business.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe who is currently a major Sirisena loyalist took\u00a0Senadhipathy’s request to President Maithripala Sirisena<\/strong><\/a> it is learnt.\u00a0Former Minister S.B. Dissanayake was also involved in the negotiation\u00a0Colombo Telegraph learns.<\/p>\n

President Sirisena summoned a meeting of security officials and asked\u00a0the Defence Ministry to consider giving licences to Avant Garde to\u00a0resume operations. However senior Navy officials who were present at\u00a0the meeting strongly opposed the President’s proposal saying the Avant\u00a0Garde was still owing them hundreds of millions in unpaid dues. All\u00a0three forces personnel opposed the move Colombo Telegraph can reveal\u00a0and even the Chief of Defence Staff was not in favour of the proposal.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

This had caused the President to back down from the plan sources said\u00a0but he insisted on a committee being set up to study the matter.\u00a0However it is learned that through Rajapakshe and Dissanayake,\u00a0Nissanka Senadhipathi tried to sneak in two of his “preferred”\u00a0officials into the committee. Senadhipathi has several military\u00a0officials on his payroll Colombo Telegraph learns.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

However former\u00a0Defence Secretary Hemasiri Fernando had strongly opposed the effort to\u00a0allow Senadhipathy’s “representatives’ into the committee.<\/p>\n

The licences were never approved. Rajapakshe and Dissanayake are\u00a0hoping that a new Defence Secretary will pave the way for these\u00a0approvals to be granted and for Senadhipathy to continue to do\u00a0business at the Government’s expense again.<\/p>\n

Rajapakshe has always been a strong backer of Avant Garde and his\u00a0friend Nissanka Senadhipathi even making statements defending them in\u00a0Parliament in 2016. Photos later emerged of the Senadhipathi and\u00a0Rajapakshe families taking holidays together in Disneyland.\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[…]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":154310,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,1,2375],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-201161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-news","category-stories"],"yoast_head":"\nWijeyadasa Rajapakshe's Axe Against Hemasiri Linked To Deal For Avant Garde - Colombo Telegraph<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wijeyadasa-rajapakshes-axe-against-hemasiri-linked-to-deal-for-avant-garde\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe's Axe Against Hemasiri Linked To Deal For Avant Garde - 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