‘Powerful businessman in India’ sent his private jet for Rajapaksa’s Tirupati pilgrimage

Colombo, Dec 30 (FN Agency) A “powerful businessman in India” had sent his private jet to Sri Lanka for Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa to travel to Tirupati for a pilgrimage last week, a ruling party MP has clarified in the wake of opposition criticism against the PM for spending millions on the travel. Ruling party (Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna) Parliamentarian Milan Jayathilake on Thursday said that “a powerful businessman in India” had sent his private jet to Sri Lanka for the country’s Prime Minister to travel to Tirupati. “The jet was sent for a personal matter and the cost was borne by that Indian businessman,” he said, newsfirst.lk reported. The MP also hit out at the JVP for attempting to label the private jet as the property of the Prime Minister. JVP’s Wasantha Samarasinghe on Wednesday slammed the Prime Minister for undertaking a visit to Tirupati at a cost of USD 32 Million using a private jet, while the people in the country are struggling to survive.

Samarasinghe alleged that while on the one hand the government claims that it is not in possession of US Dollars to procure fertilizer and other essentials, it is easily locating the dollars for private trips to Tirupati. He also alleged that it was the High Commissioner of Sri Lanka to Uganda Velupillai Kananathan who sent the private jet for Prime Minister Rajapaksa to travel to Tirupati. He further alleged that these incidents make it clear that the missing LTTE gold, as well as the money stowed away in foreign accounts, are surfacing through these events. An activist of Sri Lanka’s Frontline Socialist Party, Pubudu Jagoda, said that the Prime Ministers’ son Yoshitha Rajapaksa was quoted as saying that the Prime Minister did not pay for the jet, and that payments were made by a friend of Rajapaksa. However, he said that irrespective of who makes the payment, it has an impact on the country’s foreign reserves. Jagoda pointed out that around Rs. 32 Million was spent on this private jet and raised concerns as to why the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka would resort to using a private jet when he could have easily used a passenger plane. He also said the private jet belongs to Jetsetgo Aviation Services Pvt Ltd, and that it caters to the super rich. He said it is a cause of concern if the private jet was used for a money laundering operation.