Following Ven. Theeniyawala Palitha Thero’s serious allegations against State Minister of Money, Capital Market, and State Enterprise Reforms Ajith Nivard Cabraal and the Secretary to the President Dr. P.B. Jayasundara yesterday (22), The Morning reached the State Minister today (21) for his response. The Thero alleged that Ajith Nivard Cabraal and the Secretary to the President Dr. P.B. Jayasundara have been involved in acts of fraud, corruption, and misappropriation of public funds and property amounting to Rs. 23 billion. The State Minister said that this is an extremely malicious allegation and raised the question as to why this issue has been raised seven years after the initial allegations were put forward. “The fact these allegations have been raised again after a period of seven years shows that they have been done to distract us from our duties,” he said. The State Minister also mentioned that he feels as if these allegations have been raised once again by a group of people in a partnership who share the common goal of worrying, distracting and harassing the government. “I am surprised and shocked that people of this nature are resorting to such low tactics to gain their ends,” he said. He also mentioned that when the Yahapalanaya government was in place, these groups had five years to bring these allegations up and when they did, their attempts were futile. “They went through a lot of attempts to pin something on myself and Dr. Jayasundara, but they could not find even one single instance of fraud or wrongdoing. Now they are taking a different approach to this seven year old issue,” he said. The State Minister also added that this issue is something that has no substance and is a clear attempt to misuse the judicial system to harass and bring disrepute to people. He said that suitable steps will be taken against these measures and that the public will soon see what a despicable action this was. The Thero who made these allegations had filed a Fundamental Rights petition before the Supreme Court on Tuesday (20) and stated that Cabraal and Jayasundara, who was also alleged to be involved in these deals, must be punished and excluded from all state operations.