Former Chief Justice Sarath N. Silva says that while magistrates acted with judicial mentality in the past, that is not the case presently.
Addressing a gathering during the launch of a book authored by former President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s media secretary Rohan Weliwita on Tuesday (7), he also spoke about certain murder charged which had been leveled against Rajapaksa when he was still an MP.
“I have known him for a long period of time. He was also jailed in connection with two murders and an attempted murder.”
Silva, who was then working in the Attorney General’s department said that he “saw stars” when those charges were made. He said that he immediately called Mahinda Rajapaksa then found out he wasn’t even there at the time of the incident.
He stated that someone who was on the side had carried out the shooting around 10 minutes after Rajapaksa had left that location.
He stated that a then minister in the UNP government had “fabricated” two witnesses to testify against Rajapaksa, accusing the latter of carrying out the shooting which left two dead and another injured.
Silva stated that he met with Mahinda Rajapaksa and asked him to tell truth about what happened.
He said that Rajapaksa told him he wasn’t there when it happened and that he had only gone to that location to use a smoke grenade, which in the end hadn’t worked.
Silva stated that at the time he was the president of the Attorney General’s department trade union and that he wanted to get certain benefits for them from then President J.R. Jayawardena.
He stated that one day when he visited the President’s Office along with Sunil De Silva for this discussion, the UNP minister in question arrived there.
He recalled that the minister called Sunil De Silva and said: “Sunil, this time we have caught the man by his neck. Don’t let him go.”
“I knew then that it was this man who had fabricated this case,” Sarath N. Silva said.
He stated that from that day he decided that he will somehow rescue Mahinda Rajapaksa.
He said that a team of CID officers carried out investigations and that they uncovered an individual hiding behind shrubbery had carried out the shooting.
