Transport, Highways and Mass Media Minister Dr. Bandula Gunawardena stated that the attack on the chairman and the board of directors of the Maganeguma office located on New Nuge Road in Peliyagoda was planned by an organised group.
The Minister said that the police and the Criminal Investigation Department have been informed to carry out an impartial investigation into the incident and that there is enough recorded evidence related to the incident.
The minister made this statement yesterday (3) while answering a question asked by a journalist during the media briefing to announce Cabinet decisions at the Government Information Department yesterday.
The minister said that organized mobs came posing as employees and launched this attack and snatched the microphone of the chairman who was addressing the ceremony for the commencement of work for the New Year and the mobs blocked the raising of the national flag and singing the national anthem.
The minister also said that the chairman was attacked with milk rice that had been brought to the event and threatened him to resign from the post of chairman in violation of the provisions of the Public Property Act.
The minister said that this incident was broadcast on all the government and private channels and the gang that planned this incident had invited the media to cover these incidents in advance.
The Minister emphasized that during the time of Prabhakaran, it was not allowed to raise the national flag and sing the national anthem in the north and this incident was the first time after the war that the national flag was not allowed to be raised and the national anthem was not allowed to be sung.
The minister said that the state officials should have an environment where they can perform their duties in the country without fear and suspicion and the board of directors including the chairman had taken steps to suspend four persons who committed fraud and corruption in the past.
The Minister also said that an investigation is being conducted by the Criminal Investigation Department in this regards. Additionally, according to the government gazette announcements, any employee of the government can be ordered to retire from the government service after attaining the age of 55 years and according to this rule, some employees working in the institution who have reached the age of 55 years and have no official work as all development projects have been curtailed, had been asked to retire.
In the meantime, it has been revealed during the police investigations that Chairman Yoga Perera and the Executive Director Mahesh Wickerama, were assaulted and harassed by a group of people who were angry because of a complaint they made to the Criminal Investigation Department regarding misappropriation of 2 billion rupees. The complaint was made on October 25 and investigations have revealed that the financial fraud has been going on since entering into contracts with the companies.
In this way, they have even suspended an official from Maganeguma who had arranged to pay back an amount of Rs.35 million to a company that was not registered for VAT.
It has also been found from the police investigation that since Maganeguma’s current chairman and the top management are working to prevent the fraud and corruption activities of Maganeguma, a group of people who are affected by it have created a tense situation among the employees.
Four trade union leaders involved in the attack were arrested by the Peliyagoda Police and brought to court yesterday (3) and the Colombo Additional Magistrate Keminda Perera ordered to release them on bail.
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