The Chairman of the Nuwara Eliya Pradeshiya Sabha has alleged that his signature was forged to authorise salary payments worth approximately Rs. 625,000 to 11 employees while he was held in remand custody following his arrest by the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption (CIABOC).
The chairman said a signature purportedly bearing his name and dated April 7 was used to approve the salary documents while he was held at a prison in Colombo. Under standard procedure his signature should only be placed after the relevant officials have reviewed and endorsed the documents, but the disputed signature appears on documents dated before those officials’ own signatures.
“I do not recognise the signature used during the period I was absent from the Pradeshiya Sabha — it is a forgery,” he said, calling on police and local government authorities to conduct a formal investigation and prosecute those responsible.
He has lodged written complaints with the Nuwara Eliya Criminal Investigation Division and with the Assistant Commissioner of Local Government in Nuwara Eliya.
The chairman — Ceylon Workers’ Congress (CWC) Deputy Leader Velu Yogaraj — was arrested by CIABOC on April 7 over allegations of corruption at the council and remanded shortly afterwards. The new allegation opens a second accountability track at the Pradeshiya Sabha — a documents fraud now overlapping with the ongoing CIABOC corruption probe — and adds the disputed April 7 payment authorisation as a fresh evidentiary thread.
Source: Ada Derana.
