- Video focusing on former Hambantota Mayor goes viral
- AG intervenes and demands immediate police probe
By Sarah Hannan
Many incidents of illegal land grabs have been reported in the media, and yet another such land grab came into the spotlight recently. A video of former Hambantota Municipal Council Mayor Eraj Ravindra Fernando allegedly being involved in what seems like illegal land encroachment went viral on social media recently. Fernando, however, denied the allegations directed at him relating to the video.
The video gained more traction after Minister of Sports and Youth Affairs Namal Rajapaksa shared it on his official Twitter handle, denying that his immediate family and his extended family had any associations with the persons in the video.
“Saw a video on social media which implicates myself and members of my family. Relevant authorities are already looking in to this matter. Incidents such as this should not be taken lightly! I can assure that no one from my family is involved or affiliated to this,” Rajapaksa tweeted on 31 October.
The narrator of the video implies that Fernando was involved in a land grabbing racket in Colombo and its suburbs, used his political affiliations to do so, and was allegedly fabricating title deeds and selling it to people to line his pocket.
Viral video
The majority of the video shows CCTV footage of a plot of cleared out land. The narrator alleges that Fernando, who is described as a political thug, was exploiting his position of power to gain forced entry to a plot of land in Nugegoda. The narrator claims that Fernando uses brokers to single out lands that are under dispute and that have been unoccupied for long periods of time due to the owners living overseas, so as to fabricate title deeds on said lands.
The narrator then alleges that Fernando takes a group of his men and breaks and enters the plot of land and acquires it. The narrator goes on to claim that the fabricated title deeds were prepared by Dexter Ajith Balasuriya from Malagala, Padukka.
The narrator adds that after preparing all the necessary documents to complete the fabricated title deed, Fernando allegedly uses his security services company to guard the grabbed lands by setting up a fake agreement between the land owner and the said company.
Then, the narrator claims, Fernando uses his security force of 20 security officers to break the padlocks of the entrance to the forcefully acquired land to gain entry.
The narrator claims that the plot of land documented on the CCTV footage is owned by a person named Velona Kanthi who lives in Italy, and the narrator notes that there is an ongoing case at the Nugegoda District Court, adding that there were also notifications displayed on the walls surrounding the land pertaining to the said case.
The narrator then alleges that Fernando instructed his security officers to remove the notifications that were pasted to the wall, before entering the land that he had allegedly forcefully acquired.
Fernando responds
The Sunday Morning on Friday (6) spoke to former Hambantota Mayor Eraj Fernando to understand the backstory to the video that went viral and his involvement in the issue.
“The land in question has had some dispute for over one year now. I have my own business premises located right behind the land that is shown in the CCTV footage. I would like to clarify that the video has been edited and puts together incidents that occurred over two years.”
Fernando said that he has no ownership or intention of acquiring the land in question and vehemently denies all the allegations directed at him in the video.
[caption id="attachment_41167" align="alignleft" width="285"]
Former Hambantota Municipal Council Mayor Eraj Ravindra Fernando [/caption]
He also noted that whilst he was in the CCTV footage that is being circulated, contrary to what the narrator alleges, he did not break open locks to gain entry to the land.
“That particular day, when I was going to my office in Nugegoda from Hambantota, I saw a group of people fighting in front of this land in question. I was concerned and I went there to stop the fight. While I was talking to the two parties that were brawling, an emergency patrol bike arrived, and a constable said: ‘An area resident just called 119 and alerted us about a fight’ – it is the CCTV footage from that specific day that is circulating,” Fernando explained.
According to Fernando, a person named Sanith Sanjeewa Weerarathne, the owner of the land depicted in the CCTV footage, was assaulted several times when he visited his newly acquired plot of land.
“Each time this boy arrived, a bunch of people would arrive in vehicles and start to assault him. These incidents of assault have been happening for several months now and although there have been several complaints made to the Police, no action was taken in this regard,” Fernando explained.
Providing security for the land
Fernando noted that seeing this person’s plight, his security firm managers had agreed to provide security for Weerarathne’s plot of land.
“I would like to reiterate that my only connection with this land begins when my security firm signs an agreement and provides security for Weerarathne’s land. For documentation purposes, my security firm had asked him to submit a copy of the deed of the land, so we could draft the legal agreement to provide security to the land expanse that is owned by him,” Fernando explained.
Fernando had then allocated 10 of his security officers (SOs) to Weerarathne’s land.
During the aforementioned incident at which Fernando arrived at the scene of assault, in addition to the 10 SOs he had allocated, his own personal security also accompanied him, he said.
“When the constables arrived and questioned as to why there were so many people at the premises, I identified myself as the chairman of the security firm that is providing security for the land in question and explained to them that 10 SOs were allocated (for the land) and the rest were my personal security. I then told them that the people who had assaulted had fled the scene and that I was there to see to my SOs’ wellbeing,” Fernando noted.
Fernando said he then gave his contact number to the constables who had arrived on the police patrol bike so they could get in touch with him if they had any inquiries.
It was Weerarathne who had opened the padlock to the land and provided entry to Fernando so that he could show him the spot from where the assaulters had hit Weerarathne that day, Fernando said.
“As I entered the plot of land, I removed my facemask and looked at the CCTV cameras of the adjacent buildings and waved. I did this so, in case people go through the footage, they’d know it was I who was there to personally see for myself what had happened,” he explained.
Encounter with alleged assaulters
About 45 minutes after the constables had left the scene, Fernando had gotten a call from a person named Sugath.
“When I got the call from Sugath, I sensed he was calling me regarding the Nugegoda land incident. Incidentally, I knew Sugath, as he had even visited my house in Hambantota several times. During the phone conversation, Sugath said the land that is in question is actually owned by one of his uncles. I had no idea that Sugath or his family had any connection to this land,” Fernando claimed.
Sugath had been in Kurunegala when he made the call, and Fernando had asked him to come to Nugegoda immediately, as there was a dispute over the land that he claimed his uncles owned.
Fernando reiterated that at the time he had provided security for the land, he thought it was owned by Weerarathne and that area thugs were trying to intimidate him in attempts to enter the land that Weerarathne had purchased.
“It was a Sunday and since it was getting late, when Sugath arrived, I went to his house. He then brought a file which had the title records which showed the ownership transfers and the case file of the land dispute that named petitioners Wijeweera Chandana Jayawardena of Udahamulla, who had a car wash at Stanley Thilakaratne Mawatha in Nugegoda (located across the disputed land), Chandana Priyantha William, and Abeysinghe Liyanarachchige Gamini.”
The court case was filed at the Nugegoda District Court under case number SPL/424/18 on 9 June 2018.
“If I remember right, the lot numbers that were mentioned in the document were 134, 135, 136/1, and 136 for land lots of 17.5 perches. Sugath then asked me to remove the security allotted to the land and maybe just leave one security person to guard the land. Sugath then said that it was he who had sent people to assault Weerarathne,” Fernando stated.
Fernando, understanding that the matter was graver than he had initially presumed, agreed to remove his security detail from the disputed land.
Fernando had then asked Sugath whether he could accompany him to make a statement to the Police that there is an ongoing court case over the land, which was why the assault had taken place, and now that the true owners had alerted Fernando about the dispute, he was ready to remove his security detail.
Sugath had then told Fernando that there was no necessity to go to the Police and that Sugath and his family were willing to pay Rs. 10 million to Fernando, so he could remove his security guards from the land.
“I told him that I do not need money from him to remove my security guards from the said land. I also sensed that there was something more to what I was seeing on the surface over this disputed land. After that, we had an argument, and I left for the land in question. I did not remove my security detail and parked my vehicle close to the land and waited there overnight,” Fernando added.
Later in the early hours of the morning, Fernando said, Sugath had arrived at the land and complained about how Fernando had acquired the land for a very low price of Rs. 100,000 whereas the land was worth at least Rs. 8 million.
“I made it quite clear to him that I had not bought the land or forcefully acquired it and that if he could prove his claims with original documents at the police station, I was willing to leave the land. He never turned up and it was after that incident that the video was shared on social media,” Fernando explained.
AG orders Police to investigate
As soon as the video started circulating on social media, Attorney General (AG) Dappula de Livera wrote to Acting Inspector General of Police (IGP) C.D. Wickrameratne on 29 October instructing him to launch an investigation into the CCTV footage and video which implies a land grab racket involving Eraj Ravindra Fernando, Dexter Ajith Balasuriya, Sanith Sanjeewa Weerarathne, and Mohomed Mazaheer Mohomed Nazeerdeen.
The AG had ordered the Police to investigate;
- Whether Dexter Ajith Balasuriya prepared fake deeds for Eraj Ravindra Fernando;
- Whether Eraj Ravindra Fernando used personnel from his own private security service to forcibly enter the premises;
- Which group entered the land in question after breaking the padlocks.
The AG had further noted that the Police is to submit a report on whether this video was credible and handover the case to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) for further investigations.
The Mirihana Police, when contacted by
The Sunday Morning, stated that there was an ongoing court case at the Nugegoda District Court over the disputed land in question, and said that the CID was currently looking in to the possible financial scam that had taken place during the past years over the land in question.
