Unseen hands delayed Mahendran’s Extradition – Sirisena

Former President Maithripala Sirisena claimed that the actual reason for the delay in the extradition of former Central Bank Governor Arjuna Mahendran, who is implicated in the CBSL Treasury Bonds Scam, from Singapore, is due to certain persons, including those who financially benefitted from the scam, maintaining a friendly relationship with powerful figures based in Singapore.

Thus, there are forces controlled by an unseen hand regarding this matter, and thereby disrupting the extradition process, he alleged yesterday (3), while speaking at a Media briefing held at Sri Lanka Freedom Party Headquarters.

Sirisena further claimed that during his Presidency, certain factions of the Government at the time had written to INTERPOL with regard to arresting Mahendran, and stated that the matter concerning Mahendran was political in nature and not a financial fraud, and thus urged INTERPOL not to intervene in this connection.

“INTERPOL had concurred with the request and acknowledged that the matter was of a political nature and declined to involve themselves in it. But once again the Government, together with the Police and the Attorney General’s Department, based on the report of the Presidential Commission of Inquiry appointed by me to probe the scam, wrote to INTERPOL, stating that it had in fact been a corrupt financial fraud that had taken place.

INTERPOL subsequently accepted this version of events and issued a Red Notice on Mahendran. But due to the force exerted by certain unseen hands, the process of extradition is being disrupted by certain parties due to fears that they too would be held responsible for this scam.”

“We could not get down Mahendran since he has changed his name,” Sirisena said.

(Source: Ceylon Today – By Maajid Aman)