SJB complains of not being allowed to visit imprisoned colleague Ramanayake

By Saman Indrajith

SJB Hambantota District MP Dilip Wedaarachchi told Parliament yesterday that prison officers did not allow the parliamentarians to visit their Gampaha District MP Ranjan Ramanayake serving a prison term for contempt of the Supreme Court.

“An MP has a right to visit prisons and meet any inmate. It is one of the privileges of an MP. We wanted to visit our fellow MP Ramanayake at the Angunakolapelessa Prison but we were turned back. This amounts to a breach of our privileges,” MP Wedaarachchi said.

Raising a privilege issue the MP said: “We went to the Angunakolapelessa prison on Jan 19 to visit MP Ramanayake. At the gate we were told that the Director General of Prisons has ordered us not to take in visitors. I tried to contact the Director General of Prisons but he did not answer the phone. While we were waiting at the entrance we saw MP Ramanayake being taken into the prison premises in a bus. I spoke to the Chief Jailer and showed him that I have a PCR report with me and MP Ramanayake, too, underwent a 14- day quarantine period so there was no problem in meeting and talking. Usually the Chief Jailor should allow us to meet prisoners. He could have arranged for the same. I call on the Speaker to direct the prison officials to allow us to visit MP Ramanayake and to uphold our privileges.”