Gobinath Sivarajah the Media Manager of the National Olympic Committee of Sri Lanka was ordered to be remanded till the 8th of June 2024 after he was produced at the Magistrates Court by officials attached to the Colombo Fraud Bureau yesterday.
Sivarajah was arrested in the early hours of yesterday by Immigration and Emigration officials at the Bandaranaike International Airport when he was attempting to flee the country despite an existing travel ban being enforced.
Gobinath Sivarajah who served as the Secretary of Dance Sport is reported to be investigated for forging the signature of its appointed President Malinga Fernando and had obtained a sponsorship of Rs 800,000 from a businessman who was also reported to have been blackmailed into parting with this sum of money.
It has been revealed that during his interrogation following his arrest, Sivarajah informed Fraud Bureau officials that he was on his way to Prague, Czechoslovakia to attend a course conducted by the International Olympic Committee, and then planned to proceed to Canada to visit his girlfriend. However, reliable sources indicate that his explanation about attending a course in Prague was fabricated.
Sources also stated that Fraud Bureau officials received multiple calls from high-ranking officials requesting that they not object to bail if Sivarajah’s legal team requested it. One of the prominent callers was reported to be former DIG (Rtd) Pathirane who is supposed to be a close associate of Sec. Gen Maxwell De Silva and Nishantha Piyasena the current President of Modern Pentathlon. Additionally, requests to transport Sivarajah without handcuffs to courts had been granted, and he was taken to court in a three-wheeler Tuk Tuk.
Sources further revealed that the current Secretary General of the NOCSL Maxwell De Silva has been the mastermind behind several rackets that are currently being investigated by several authorities in the country for acts based upon corruption, fraud, racketeering, forgery and human smuggling. Other key players such as the NOCSL Treasurer Gamini Jayasinghe, Malinga Fernando, Dinesh Krishantha, Nishantha Piyasena and Suranjith Premadasa have been key allies of Secretary De Silva and have been named as part of this syndicate.
Earlier two key players of the NOCSL Executive Committee who were part of this group namely Lalith Vithana (Chairman Finance) and Executive Committee Member Major General (Rtd) Dampath Fernando resigned and fled the NOCSL Executive Committee after they too were named along with these mentioned officials.
What has puzzled many is how Secretary General De Silva has been able to manipulate the authorities by avoiding investigations when summoned, leading to those cases being shelved. On December 27, 2023, and again on April 10, 2024, Secretary De Silva failed to attend inquiries summoned by the Commission to Investigate Bribery or Corruption. This has led the public to speculate that he might be the only person capable of bribing the very officials tasked with investigating bribery and corruption, prompting them to ignore the cases filed against him.
In another alleged case of human smuggling and fraud, it has been reported that NOCSL Secretary General Maxwell De Silva provided a letter to a stooge of his named Neil Perera, who was the appointed National Coach of the Roller-Skating Association of Sri Lanka, to help him obtain a Schengen Visa. Sources revealed that Neil Perera had in the past overstayed his visa in France and was subsequently deported to Sri Lanka. However, around six months ago, Secretary General De Silva arranged for Perera to return to France by providing a letter to help facilitate his visa application. It is now reported that Neil Perera is once again back in Paris, France.
The sporting community in Sri Lanka has long aspired to rid all sports of manipulation, corruption, betting, and match-fixing. They hope that the arrest of Gopinath Sivarajah will be the first step in exposing and removing other corrupt officials, starting with NOCSL Secretary General Maxwell De Silva and others who have been part of this long-running syndicate.
