Intelligence reports on Easter Sunday bombings do not link ACMC Leader Rishad Bathiudeen to the bombings, said Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.
Speaking at a school ceremony in Kinniya on 14 July, PM Wickremesinghe said that various factions with vested interests are selectively highlighting only some parts of the Intelligence Reports while ignoring the rest. โIt is not possible to deny one part of the report while accepting the balance part, as it would just undermine the strength of the evidence for baseless political purposesโ he said. โThere were 300 complaints and those complaints were baseless. Therefore, there are no charges against the former Minister. Bathiudeen did not exert any influence on the Army Commander. The Intelligence report had been forwarded to Speaker Jayasuriya and the Attorney General and they will do the needful. I have instructed the PSC and other relevant forces to hand over the relevant report to Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith, once he returns to the country. Certain forces do not accept this report and it could lead to weaken the evidence and set the conditions for real terrorists to escapeโ said PM Wickremesinghe.
During the Parliamentary Select Committee hearings of 28 June, quoting a letter sent by Acing IGP Senior DIG C. D. Wickramaratne, to Dhammika Dasanayake, Secretary General of Parliament, the Deputy Speaker and Chairperson of Committees of Parliament J. M. Ananda Kumarasiri announced: โNo evidence has been found to link Minister Rishad Bathiudeen to the series of bomb blasts of 2019 April 21 nor any terrorist activity, in investigations conducted so far by the Investigations Committee comprising of CID, FCID, and Colombo Fraud Investigation Bureau (CFIB), established to investigate complaints against Minister Bathiudeen. The Investigations Committee conducts its investigations under Acing IGP Senior DIG C. D. Wickramaratne. We will include this letter to our documents.โ
Leader of All Ceylon Makkal Congress