Ranjan’s voice clips exposed: He influenced Judges and top Cops

Recordings found in the possession of MP Ranjan Ramanayake, had contained telephone conversations between him and Judges, CID heads and senior officers, regarding Court proceedings and promotions for Judges. This was revealed at several Media briefings held yesterday (6).

At one media briefing, State Minister of Energy, Rohitha Abeygunawardana spoke about MP Ramanayake’s telephone conversations.

He said, “Ranjan tells the then CID Director that they were good friends. Ramanayake is told not to talk to Mrs. Ranawaka. Shani Abeysekara, in the recording, tells Ramanayake not to tell anything to Pathmini Ranawaka.”

Speaking at another briefing, Mawbima Wenuwen Ranawiruwo organisation’s Convenor Ajith Prasanna said, “Ranjan Ramanayake is suffering from a mental illness, and due to this illness, he talks to powerful figures, Judges, high-ranking officials of the Attorney General’s Department, high-ranking officials of the Police and CID and also politicians. He records all these calls, stores these recordings on CDs and keeps them with him. I received a recording of a telephone conversation between MP Ramanayake and Shani Abeysekara of the CID.”

(He plays the recording…)

“Ranjan: Shani, this is my concern. Your target is to put Duminda in jail; my target is also to put him in jail. So is the target of Bharatha’s wife and Hirunika. The target of all of us is to put Duminda in jail. So why are we fighting. Does that mean Ranjan is on Duminda’s side.

Shani Abeysekara: Yes, he’s with him.

“This conversation had taken place before the verdict of Duminda Silva’s case was delivered,” Prasanna added, questioning “Why do we worry about Ranjan Ramanayake anymore?”

Sinhala Ravaya General Secretary Ven. Magalkande Sudaththa Thera said that even a certain High Court Judge had made phone calls to MP Ranjan Ramanayake.

He added that a High Court Judge dealing with a person who has cases against him in a Court is a disgraceful act.

He made this statement at a media briefing while releasing records of telephone conversations Ramanayake had with High Court Judges and high-ranking Police officers.

“These voice records contain requests made by a High Court Judge to Ranjan Ramanayake to be promoted as a Appeal Court Judge. It is disgraceful for a High Court Judge to deal with a person who has been charged with various offences including contempt of Court.

Ramanayake advises Police officers and Judges to arrest, file cases against and remand people and he even advises to sentence certain people to death.
A High Court Judge requested a promotion from Ramanayake for acting on his instructions. As such, the independence of the Judiciary has been eroded. The judges have sold their souls to Ramanayake. We have recordings of conversations where MP Ramanayake promises to discuss promotions with top Ministers and officials.

In this context, previous decisions given by these Judges should be reconsidered. The death penalty for some persons can be seen as political verdicts. We ask the President to release Duminda Silva on a Presidential Pardon. There are even conversations between Ramanayake and senior Police officers of the CID regarding filing cases against some people,” the Thera added.

Leader of the Pivithuru Hela Urumaya (PHU), MP Udaya Gammanpila says that it is very clear that Parliamentarian Ranjan Ramanayake has influenced Judges and Police Officers during the previous United National Front (UNF) Government, according to the telephone conversations that were stored in the mobile phone, found during his arrest. He claimed that Ramanayake had pressured the Judges and Police Officers to act against his opponents.

“People blame us saying that Ramanayake was arrested for having a pistol and DVDs containing pornographic content. But it is completely baseless. Such incidents were the result of the Police failing to properly report the incident. The search warrant was obtained by the Police on information gained from one of his friends, where there were stored recordings of Ramanayake’s phone calls,” he added.

He also claimed that it exposed that the Police and the Judiciary was influenced not only by Ramanayake, but also by several powerful persons of the previous Government. Recalling that a former Solicitor General, a former Director General of the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption, and former senior Deputy Inspector Generals of Police had exposed their involvement in various political reprisals during the previous regime, Gammanpila claimed that those allegations were always rejected by politicians.

“While checking, the Police found a pistol and a number of DVDs containing obscene material, but they did not go to investigate them. They went there because they had information on how Government officials and the Judiciary were influenced by him during the past few years,” he elaborated.

Former Chief Justice, Sarath N. Silva, said the Parliamentarians of the former UPFA Government can sue MP Ranjan Ramanayake in the Supreme Court, for violating human rights, by forcing the authorities to arrest MPs and by calling Financial Crimes Investigation Division (FCID) officials.

He opined that if it is revealed through the telephone records that Ramanayake has forced the Police Officers and FCID, it is a critical situation.
He added that if those telephone records are made public, it will also affect the cases in a different manner.

He further said, he had stated that the FCID is an illegal institution in February 2015, and that this is clearly seen through the instructions given by Ramanayake when he was a State Minister, and it is further confirmed with the interventions made by Ramanayake, by calling FCID officials.

(Source: Ceylon Today – By Buddhika Samaraweera, W.K. Prasad Manju and Sujith Mario)