PSC appoints acting AG; MR calls for parliamentary probe

Senior Additional Solicitor General Sanjay Rajaratnam was appointed yesterday as the Acting Solicitor General (SG) by the Public Service Commission (PSC) with immediate effect, the Attorney General's Coordinating Officer said.

Rajaratnam was appointed as Acting Solicitor General after Solicitor General Dilrukshi Dias Wickremasinghe was interdicted from office by the PSC.

PSC action against Wickremasinghe was initiated after a leaked telephone conversation between Wickremasinghe and Avant Garde Chairman, Nissanka Senadhipathi was released on social media.

In the conversation, Wickremasinghe while expressing deep regret over the filing of a court case against Avant Garde said that she could “make the law or break the law” while blaming disruptive politics in the country over the case.

However, Wickremasinghe later claimed that the telephone conversation leaked on social media was not the complete conversation and that it was made via a telephone belonging to a government minister.

Wickremasinghe earlier served as the Director General of the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption (CIABOC)

Meanwhile, Opposition Leader Mahinda Rajapaksa has called for a parliamentary level committee to probe the allegations made by Solicitor General Wickremesinghe and former Solicitor General Suhada Gamlath over political influence on investigations.

Rajapaksa made this observation at the National Convention of the Sri Lanka Mahajana Pakshaya which was held in Kurunegala yesterday.

He said attention had been drawn to interdict one Solicitor General and to remove the other over the allegations they had made, but no attention has been given to probe the allegations and revelations made by them.

Rajapaksa therefore called for a parliamentary level committee to probe the allegations made by the officials.