National Freedom Front leader Wimal Weerawansa said that the process of legally issuing fake identity cards should be stopped immediately and that if the digital identity card is provided by a company in India or any other country, the government should be fully responsible for the security of that data.
Wimal Weerawansa revealed this while participating in a media briefing held at the National Freedom Front headquarters in Battaramulla, Colombo.
According to the knowledge of the heads of the Department of Registration of Persons, computer programmer analyst and social activist Wijaya Undupitiya made a special revelation here about how fake national identity cards are currently being issued legally.
Accordingly, Mr. Wimal Weerawansa, who expressed doubts about how many fake national identity cards would be used in the country, emphasized that, on the one hand, the creation of fake identity cards must be stopped, and on the other hand, if a digital identity card is created, it should be done by a responsible institution in Sri Lanka and not by a company in India or another country.
Mr. Wimal Weerawansa also expressed his belief that continuing without taking the necessary steps to legally stop the creation of fake identity cards while claiming that the Indian Aadhaar digital system is secure will not be beneficial to the country at all.
National Freedom Front Leader Wimal Weerawansa
“Today, we are revealing the facts about the nature of the fraud in the digital identity card that was started by the previous government and is being continued by this government.
Generally, most of the powerful countries in the world have not introduced digital identity cards. In the United States, only a few states have implemented digital identity cards. Not in other states. Even the United Kingdom has not introduced such a thing yet. Russia has also talked about a digital ID, but it has not yet been introduced to the people of that country. Even in Canada, this is only implemented in some states.
The current President recently said that India has the most secure digital system in the world. However, an American organization revealed on October 15, 2023, that the valuable data of 815 million Indians had been stolen through the dark web. Even before that, more than 6,000 incidents have been reported of the digital system known as Aadhaar where data has been stolen from various dark web sites. Therefore, this digital ID is something that should be thought about a hundred thousand times. Also, the fraudulent process of the digital ID that is currently being implemented should be stopped immediately.
With this revelation we have made today, you must now understand how many fake IDs are currently being used in our country. Now, in the meantime, hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees are trying to enter Sri Lanka. With this explanation, we have strong reasons to suspect how many of them will make fake IDs in this way.
Also, people from neighboring countries are coming to Sri Lanka for various jobs. Now the government is preparing to sign the ETCA agreement as per the joint agreement announced with India. Then, if the ETCA agreement is signed, it will not be possible to stop Indians from flooding into Sri Lanka for jobs. It could be in the millions, not in the hundreds of thousands. Then, if those Indians also make fake IDs in this way, we have to express our suspicions about how the population culture of Sri Lanka will be distorted.
The seriousness of this revelation is that these fake IDs are being issued with the knowledge of the heads of the ID Card Department. Therefore, we know that there are Pakistani nationals who came as refugees in the Negombo area. The Department of Registration of Persons has set up its operations in such a way that anyone, not just someone born in Sri Lanka, can be issued a fake ID card. Therefore, we request the government and the country to immediately take steps to stop this fake ID card process.
Also, if the dark web was able to steal the personal data of 815 million Indians through the digital data system called Aadhaar, then we cannot tell anyone how that information was sold when the digital ID card of this country was created by an Indian company. Generally, there are countries in the world that have created digital ID cards. Those countries have done it through their own institutions, not through an institution in another country. Data is a very important factor in the modern world. When the creation of fake ID cards stops on one side, if a digital ID card is created on the other side, it should be done by a responsible institution in Sri Lanka and not by an Indian or other country company. The government should take responsibility for the security of that data system. Therefore, we emphasize that continuing without taking the necessary steps to stop the ongoing process of creating fake identity cards while claiming that the Indian Aadhaar digital system is secure, without thinking about any of this, is not beneficial to the country at all,” said Mr. Wimal Weerawansa.
Computer Programmer Analyst and Social Activist Mr. Wijaya Undupitiya
“The Rs. 3.9 billion VAT fraud committed in 2004 using Sri Lanka’s national identity card and passport has been studied for twenty-eight years. This is the number 9 under the old identity card. On the other side is the number 12 of the new identity card. The first two digits of the old identity card are taken as the year of birth. The next three digits are the number of days that have passed since the day of one’s birth. This is never duplicated. If it is a woman, 500 is added to this. This is how the woman is identified.
The department that registers people always considers a year as 366 days. The other four digits are considered the serial number. It should be equal to the number of people born on that day. It can be used up to the number 9999. The department that registers people considers the last digit as a secret number. It’s a Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck method. It’s a cartoon method.
Here I’m showing you the birth statistics for the last 40 years. In 1981, the highest number of births per day was recorded at 1,158. The lowest number was recorded in 1997. Looking at the births from 2014–2022, by 2022, the daily births have dropped to 754. The decline in the birth rate is a topic that needs to be discussed separately. Here I’m showing you the formula for calculating fake national identity cards and passports. The number that comes out of daily births minus 999 is the number that comes out of daily births minus 9,999 according to the new identity card.
After 2016, the National Identity Card Act was changed. When the year had to be replaced with the century, the Commissioner of Registration of Persons used five digits instead of four digits. A decision taken without an expert panel. There was no permission from Parliament. It is not in the Gazette either.
This is a fake passport. No fingerprints were given to make this passport. No identity card was given. No application was given. I made this to prove my research. Later, I handed it over to the Easter Commission. I did it to show how terrorists can become citizens instantly. If the department officials make a passport for money, they only ask for the required name and date of birth.
According to the law enacted twenty years ago, the passport application is finally given to the applicant. Even if it is suddenly stolen from the CID, there is nothing left to say, so no application is taken for the fake passport. Here are several passports, including Makandure Madush’s fake passport. Here are the other ID cards related to the VAT fraud. Since this numbering system has not been made public, bank officials have an excuse to say that they did not know about this.
The question here is how those who make fake ID cards knew that no ID card had been issued for the relevant number. When it comes to VAT fraud, it is the amount that fills a forty-foot container with Rs. 5,000 notes. This is the verdict of the VAT fraud case: Rs. 3.9 billion. This is a 300-page case report. Those involved in this fraud still have money to burn. The court fined and confiscated the property, and the Rs. 3.9 billion stolen in 2004 was punished in 2014. Then the interest they received for ten years was more than Rs. 3.9 billion.
The court did not impose a fine on that interest. Therefore, the original money they stole is still with them. Ananda Wickramasinghe Ambepitiya, Pushpali Jayanthi de Soysa Jayathilaka, Agampodi Gnanathilaka de Soysa Jayathilaka are the three who were sitting on the VAT pile of the Income Tax Department. All 13 people involved in this are a united group in prayer and faith. Here are the fake identity cards issued with the signature of the Commissioner of Registration of Persons, Vijaya Ranasinghe. This one was issued to an LTTE terrorist. It was made for Rs. 3,500. This is the identity card of the Black Tiger woman who came to blow up Douglas Devananda’s office. It was issued with the signature of Vijaya Ranasinghe. An engineer named Saman Wijesiri was killed. It is said that the body was dissolved in sulfuric acid. It has not been found yet. But he left a note saying that he had left the airport. The airport’s boarding control database is like a flowing river. It cannot be taken back unless it is moved forward. How was this data entered?
There is a bill passed in Parliament in 2016 to destroy the application submitted for an identity card. It has been brought as an amendment to the relevant bill, but no one has seen it. The proper procedure for making an identity card was destroyed by the officials in this way. That is what was done with a parliamentary bill. The entire nation has become a sack of rice. The fake passports and fake identity cards are the real deal. Rice is the right thing to do. A national identity card is an intellectual firewall that protects society. The legal system that has been devised to create it illegally is a degradation of society. Although I have spoken to several politicians to talk about this, only Mr. Wimal Weerawansa has given me this opportunity,” he said.
