Mahanayake Thera appears on behalf of thief with Rs. 550 m cash in hand!

From LankaNewsWeb

New Mahanayake of Asgiriya Chapter Galagama Attadassi Thera has expressed displeasure over the FCID’s questioning of Diyawadana Nilame of Sri Dalada Maligawa, Pradeep Nilanga Dela Bandara, whom audit reports say has Rs. 550 million cash in hand, media reports say.

When auditors asked him as to how he had kept the money, Nilanga has told them that he had put them in fertilizer bags and kept them. Upon hearing that the FCID has questioned him, audit officers of Dalada Maligawa telephoned him and asked, “Nilame, will we have to go inside with you?” Nilanga answered, “These are conspiracies by former Diyawadana Nilame Neranjan Wijeratne. Now, the election is nearing. That is why they are throwing mud. Neranjans are not like us, who do business. They are the ones who even took the daily paper from Dalada Maligawa. We haven’t taken even five cents from Dalada Maligawa.

But, the actual situation is that Nilanga and his henchman, Krishantha Hiswella, also known as Sulu Diyawadana Nilame and "Mathan", had swindled much more than five cents. The FCID is investigating how land owned by the Maligawa had been sold through ‘Prime Land.’

All Ceylon Buddhist Congress president Jagath Sumathipala and several of its members recently had a discussion with Hiswella with regard to what they should do if Nilanga is arrested. When Hiswella said that Buddhists all over the country should be taken to the streets, one of the ACBC members asked, “What have you done for Buddhist people of this country? What you two have done was to swindle the properties of Dalada Maligawa, the most sacred place of Buddhists of this country. Buddhist people of this country will take to the streets not against your arrest, but against you.”

When the country’s Buddhists say so, the Mahanayake Theras express displeasure over the questioning of thieves, and what we will have to ask is, ‘Will the sacred relic remain in the casket?”