Gota accused of abusing his powers as Defence Secretary

Former?Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa has been accused of abusing his powers when he was the Defence Secretary.

Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe, who was also a Minister in the former Government, said that Rajapaksa had once verbally abused a senior police officer for carrying out his duties.

“He scolded a DIG on the telephone when the DIG attempted to stop a protest. He asked the DIG who gave him the authority to go there. The police officer went to carry out his duties,” the Minister told reporters today.

The Minister noted that some of the protesters then made fun of the DIG by removing his cap.?Samarasinghe said that a top official (Rajapaksa) cleared the path for the protesters to mistreat the police officer.

He said incidents like that sent the wrong message to the international community but now things have changed. (Colombo Gazette)