Dy Minister lodges counter complaint

By Madura Ranwala

Deputy Minister of Petroleum Industries, Sarana Gunawardena, responding to a bribery complaint made against him by a businessman, yesterday said that he had lodged a counter complaint at Police Head Quarters.

Speaking to the The Island, the deputy minister denied the bribery allegation made to police by Duminda Lanka Liyanage, proprietor of Green Park Housing Complex in Attanagala. The businessman had claimed that he had given the deputy minister a sum of Rs. 5 million in instalments and undated cheques amounting to Rs. 20 million.

Gunawardena said that in his counter complaint against Liyanage to Police Headquarters the housing complex was unauthorized and the allegations against him were baseless.

He added that he and all party members of the Attanagalla Pradeshiya Sabha would file a defamation case against Liyanage claiming Rs. 1 billion in damages for the harm done to all of them.

Police Spokesman SSP Ajith Rohana said that in the counter complaint received yesterday Gunawardena had requested the Police to conduct an impartial inquiry into the bribery charge, therefore the police would take necessary action immediately regarding both complaints.

The MP told the Island that President Mahinda Rajapaksa, who visited the area on July 14, to observe in person the development work at Attanagalla, was also informed of the matter by the members of the Attanagala PS and the President in turn instructed them to take legal action if the project had not been approved.

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