By Nirmala Kannangara
The alleged actions of former Uva Province Chief Minister Shasheendra Kumara Rajapaksa in failing to respect a court ruling delivered during the former Rajapaksa regime in 2014 indicates how members of the former regime considered themselves to be above the law of the land.
Rajapaksa who was the Basnayake Nilame (lay custodian) of the Ruhunu Maha Kataragama Devalaya until January this year had been cited as one of the respondents in case number 127/ 09/ SPL at the District Court of Gangodawila where he is accused of accepting a forged document from the other respondent Ranjan Marlon Dedigama and cancelling a lease agreement that the Kataragama Devalaya had entered with J.M. Enterprises in 1994 for a period of 30 years, in an arbitrary manner.
The judgment was delivered on January 9, 2014 by Justice Nimal Bandara Balalle, District Judge of Nugegoda annulling the lease agreement Rajapaksa as the Basnayake Nilame of the Ruhunu Maha Kataragama Devalaya had entered with Ranjan Marlon Dedigama of Dedigama Group, Maharagama.
The allegedly fradulent letter given by Dedigama to Shasheendra Rajapaksa to get the ‘Wekada Wewa’ license cancelled, Shasheendra’s Administrative Secretary’s letter to Vindya Wijesekara of Dole Lanka and The court order given in Gunasekera’s favour
Lease agreement
Chairman, J.M. Enterprises, J.M. Wickremasinghe had entered in to a 30 year lease agreement with the then Basnayake Nilame of the Kataragama Devalaya Gunapala Herath on January 29, 1994 to lease 550 acres of land known as ‘Wekada Wewa’ which is a devalaya property for sugarcane cultivation. As there were more than 100 squatters on the said land J.M. Enterprises had paid more than Rs. seven million to them as compensation to vacate the land, while there were few more who refused to accept the compensation and remained in the property. J.M. Enterprises had to file legal action in the Monaragala District Court which was later transferred to the Wellawaya District Court to evict the squatters who refused to vacate the land. Since J.M. Enterprises had run short of funds to continue the sugarcane cultivation due to heavy expenditure on court cases, Chairman of J.M. Enterprises, J.M. Gunasekera had obtained loans from Ranjan Dedigama which had later led Gunasekera to offer 50% shares of the business to Dedigama to settle the loan obtained from the latter.
“When the interest on the loan was accumulating and I had no money to settle it as expected, I decided to offer 50% of the shares of the business to Dedigama to which the latter readily agreed and he was appointed as a Director on May five, 1997. Subsequently JM Enterprises took a decision to enter in to a cultivation agreement with Dole Lanka a subsidiary of Dole Asia based in Manilla the world’s largest producer and marketer of fresh fruits and vegetables with written permission from the Commissioner General of Buddhist Affairs as this land belongs to the Devalaya. The two parties entered in to a cultivation agreement for a ten year period on May 22, 2006. Initially I was paid Rs.20 million by Dole and I paid half of it to Dedigama as his share and I have documents to prove my claim,” J.M. Gunasekera told The Sunday Leader.
Subsequent to obtaining the loan from Dedigama, he (Dedigama) had obtained Gunasekera’s signature on twenty rupee stamps on several blank papers as a guarantee for the loan.
“I did not suspect Dedigama and signed on stamps on several blank papers without any hesitation. After paying 50% of the shares to him, I forgot to get these signed blank papers back since I trusted my new partner and even went to the extent of giving my Power of Attorney to him to handle the business as I was out of the country most of the time,” Gunasekera said.
According to Gunasekera, although he was alerted by a few employees of Shasheendra Rajapaksa and Dole Lanka to be careful that Rajapaksa and Dedigama were planning to cancel his (Gunasekera) 30 year lease agreement in order to enter into a new cultivation agreement with Dole Lanka as Rajapaksa and Dedigama have seen how the business had flourished by then. Gunasekera says he did not take the warnings seriously as he trusted his business partner.
“When I informed my lawyers about this, they wanted me to cancel the Power of Attorney (No: 1226 dated May 25, 1998) I Have given to Dedigama and on their instructions it was cancelled on April 17, 2009,” Gunasekera said.
It was later revealed how Dedigama had allegedly misused one of the blank papers on which Gunasekera has signed on a Rs. 20 stamp as a request letter to Shasheendra Rajapaksa to cancel the 30 year lease agreement entered on January 29, 1994.
“Together with the Power of Attorney, Dedigama had given this letter in question dated February 22, 2008 to Rajapaksa who had accepted it. If I really wanted to get the lease cancelled, why should I send a letter to Rajapaksa putting my signature on a Rs. 20 stamp? I was not disabled at that time to send such a letter to Rajapaksa through Dedigama. I would have personally gone and got the lease agreement cancelled. In fact, I have never given the Power of Attorney to Dedigama to take decision on my land but only for financial transactions. In that backdrop why did Rajapaksa entertain such dubious documents to cancel the lease agreement? According to my reliable sources who worked with Rajapaksa this was a ploy as both Rajapaksa and Dedigama knew how my business with Dole Lanka was flourishing and wanted to cancel the lease agreement I have entered with the Devalaya and to enter in to new agreement with Dole Lanka and to share the profits equally,” Gunasekera alleged.
Gunasekera further said that all his attempts to inquire from Rajapaksa as to why the lease was cancelled in an unlawful manner, he was unsuccessful as Rajapaksa was not afraid of any illegal action as it was his family that was ruling the country at the time and believed that Rajapaksas’ are above the law of the land.
According to Gunasekera, Shasheendra Rajapaksa on behalf of the Devalaya had come to a fresh lease agreement (No: 304) with Dedigama on August 27, 2010 for a term of 30 year period from June 1, 2009.
“Following this, Rajapaksa had given his consent and Commissioner of Buddhist Affairs to permit the Dedigama to come to an agreement with Dole Lanka for a business venture. Why did Dole Lanka sign an agreement with Dedigama when they have already entered to an agreement with JM Enterprise which was not cancelled?” Gunasekera alleged.
Since Gunasekera had initiated legal action against Rajapaksa and Dedigama for the alleged illegal cancellation of the 1994 lease agreement, J.M. Enterprises had informed Dole Lanka not to pay money to Dedigama but to pay him as per the 2006 agreement.
“The then Legal Advisor to Dole Lanka Chandimal Mendis and Chief Finance Officer Samudra Hewawitharana accepted my argument and decided to pay me since their cultivation agreement entered in 2006 with JM Enterprises had not been cancelled. However later, since there was an ongoing case in court they decided to deposit the money in courts then the courts could decide after the case is over to which party the money should be paid to,” Gunasekera added.
Gunasekera further alleged how Dole Lanka’s undertaking to deposit the money in court was violated after Vindhya Wijesekera a new Legal Officer had taken over office after Chandimal Mendis had resigned.
“Being the wife of one of Shashendra Rajapaksa’s employees, Vindya Wijesekera danced to the tune of Rajapaksa and instead of depositing the rental in courts, paid to Dedigama as it is alleged that she too got a commission from the money thus violating the code of professional conduct,” Gunasekera alleged.
Refusal to pay
Even after Gunasekera won the lawsuit on January nine, 2014 and despite of several requests being made to Dole Lanka to pay him the money, Vindhya Wijesekera according to Gunasekera has refused to pay claiming that Dedigama had appealed against the 2014 judgment.
“If she is such a law abiding citizen why did she pay Dedigama when there was an ongoing case in the District Court in Nugegoda? When I heard that Dole had entered an allegedly illegal agreement with Dedigama for 12 years, I inquired it from Wijesekera to which her prompt reply was not to dig into the matter as there is a white van ‘syndrome’ in the country which indirectly said that Rajapaksa’s are involved and for me to drop the matter,” he added.
Despite the ruling by the District Court that claimed Gunasekera’s lease agreement still remained legitimate, on the instruction of Shasheendra Rajapaksa his Administrative Secretary M.E. Dayananda in a letter dated November eight, 2014 to Vindhya Wijesekera of Dole Lanka has stated that the land in question the ‘Wekeda Wewa’ had not been leased out to J.M. Enterprises at any time but had been leased to Dedigama Group on a 30 year lease agreement with the consent of Commissioner of Buddhist Affairs who later entered to a cultivation agreement with Dole Lanka and if some party claims otherwise it is an illegal act and if so the Devalaya would take necessary legal action against such parties.
Meanwhile, sources close to the Ruhunu Maha Kataragama Devalaya on conditions of anonymity said how Rajapaksa did not care about any court ruling that went against him due to his relationship to the First Family at the time.
“When the court had given a judgment who on earth will disregard it other than the Rajapaksas’ who thought that they are the supreme in the country? When there was an agreement with J.M. Enterprises and it was Rajapaksa that gave the Devalaya consent to signa cultivation agreement with Dole, how can he later say that there was no such agreement other than with Dedigama Group? This is contempt of court and this should be bought to the notice of the District Judge Nugegoda to take the necessary action against Rajapaksa,” sources said.
Meanwhile, questions have been raised even within Dole Lanka as to how they had paid enormous amounts of money to the Dedigama group when there were other safe options to pursue in the matter during the court case.
Highly reliable sources from Dole Lanka confirmed to The Sunday Leader that Wijesekera had worked in collusion with Shasheendra Rajapaksa and Ranjan Dedigama of Dedigama Group, Maharagama in their attempts to claim that lessee of the ‘Wekada Wewa’ land is the Dedigama Group despite the District Court ruling stating that the lessee is J.M. Enterprises.
“In the new questionable agreement No: 68, dated march 21, 2012 entered between our company and Dedigama Group, the letter by the Commissioner of Buddhist Affairs says, Dedigama Group is the lessee. How can the Commissioner of Buddhist Affairs issue such a letter? It is the Legal Officer Wijesekera who is helping out Rajapaksa and Dedigama with the help of some lawyers from our company lawyers which is a reputed law firm in the country. We believe that these lawyers have misled the Management of Dole Asia by providing wrong information. They do not tolerate cheatings. They trust the lawyers representing this reputed law firm. But if they come to the country and hold an inquiry, Wijesekera will get caught for all her underhand dealings with Rajapaksa and Dedigama in order to get her share from this illegal deal,” sources added.
Attempts to contact Dedigama and Wijesekera for a comment failed.
Former Basnayake Nilame of the Ruhunu Maha Kataragama Devalaya, Shashendra Rajapaksa said that he has no authority to lease devalaya lands to any party but that the authority lies with the Commissioner of Buddhist Affairs.“This land was given on lease to Gunasekera well before I became the Basnayake Nilame. I took over office in 2006 by which time Gunasekera and Dedigama were partners of J.M. Enterprises and over a dispute both partners fell apart and Dedigama went to courts against Gunasekera and won the case. So when the existing agreement got cancelled with the court order, on the consent of the Commissioner of Buddhist Affairs, devalaya entered into an agreement with Dedigama. As you are saying I have not violated any court ruling nor disobeyed it. It is only on the directive of the Buddhist Commissioner this land was leased out to Dedigama,” Rajapaksa said.
Asked as to why he had said that this land in question had never been given to any party other than to Dedigama despite the fact of the January 2014 court ruling and requesting Dole Lanka to pay the annual rental only to Dedigama Group but not to JM Enterprises and whether this isn’t contempt of court, Rajapaksa said that he knew nothing about such court ruling. “I only knew about the case filed by Dedigama against Gunasekera and citing me as a respondent at the Mt. Lavinia Magistrate Court. I do not know anything about the court case filed by Gunasekera,” he added.