When Maithripala Sirisena contested the 2015 Presidential Election as the Common Candidate, he had secretly received nearly $ 40 million from a powerful foreign country for his campaign and he took steps to remit that money to the bank account of 'Elcardo Industries (Pvt). Ltd. Which was owned by his son Daham Sirisena's father-in-law
However, according to a complaint received, the Mahinda Rajapaksha Government got the CID to seize that millions of dollars during the presidential election campaign and when the CID reported facts to Pettah Court, this foreign stock of money was handed over to the Central Bank.
The United National Party was deeply panicked about the allegations leveled against its Common Presidential Candidate during the presidential election campaign and after handing over the stock of foreign currency to the Central Bank, the Governor and the Central Bank were held responsible for the stock of money. .
However, Maithripala Sirisena became the President of Sri Lanka on January 08, 2015 and his first intervention as the President was to try to appoint Dr. Indrajith Coomaraswamy as the Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka. However, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe did not allow this and on his strong request and intervention, Arjuna Mahendran was appointed at the Governor of the Central Bank
President Maithripala Sirisena, who did not object to the appointment, summoned Governor of the Central Bank, Arjuna Mahendran, to the President's official residence on Paget Road, Colombo and instructed him not to retain any more this stock of US dollars which he had received from a foreign country in the custody of the Central Bank and to Immediately return the money to the owner of Elcardo Industries (Pvt.) Ltd.
The Governor of the Central Bank, Arjuna Mahendran had not agreed to the request of President Maithripala Sirisena and he had sought instructions from Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe on the action to be taken regarding the stock of foreign currency. Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has instructed the Governor of the Central Bank to carry out all activities legally as the stock of foreign currency is in the possession of the judiciary.
President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe became antagonize on each other with this incident and in the end, President Maithripala Sirisena worked to remove Ranil Wickremesinghe from the post of Prime Minister and make Mahinda Rajapaksa the Prime Minister for 52 days to form the Government as a result of this dispute.
Simultaneously, President Maithripala Sirisena started attacking by chasing behind the Good Governance, Prime Minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe, Ravi Karunanayake and Arjun Mahendran over the Central Bank bond deal and finally appointed his puppet, Dr. Indrajith Coomaraswamy, as the Governor of the Central Bank. He had served as the Governor of the Central Bank from 2015 to 2016 and it is being revealed that during that period President Maithripala Sirisena had taken steps to release the relevant stock of foreign currency through Dr. Indrajith Coomaraswamy.
Though former Finance Minister and Colombo District UNP leader Ravi Karunanayake while holding a special press conference in Colombo, challenged former President Maithripala Sirisena with evidence- facts regarding the incident, he stated there that those details will not be exposed at this time and he is challenging former President Maithripala to come for an open debate on this issue.
Lanka Newsweek © 2025