Presidential ex-aide claims lurid viral video footage ‘distorted’

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By Editor_1
Ashu Marasinghe, former Member of Parliament and top aid to President Ranil Wickremesinghe - linkedin.com/in/ashu-marasinghe

COLOMBO – A video in which a presidential aide is seen to be making lurid gestures in front of a pet dog had been edited to distort the context of a bedroom scene, it was alleged in a complaint to the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Sri Lankan police on Saturday (24).

Ashu Marasinghe who resigned as the Presidential Advisor on Parliamentary Affairs hours before the leaked video was shared widely on social media, told the CID that the footage had been edited in such a way to distort the actual circumstances.

He did not elaborate, but his lawyer told reporters in Colombo that the 14-second clip had been released after a dispute with a woman business partner. He did not discuss the nature of their business.

The images were released by a woman identified as Adarsha Karadana who claimed she is the estranged partner of Marasinghe, a former Member of Parliament from the United National Party (UNP).

He was a top aide of UNP leader and President Ranil Wickremesinghe till Friday (23) when the video was released.

The case has also raised questions of possible abuse of power, where police was used to settle a personal dispute.

Meanwhile, a top police officer said the video of the former MP flashing a pet dog does not warrant a police investigation, underscoring the inadequacy of privacy laws.

The officer said forensic analysts had gone through the 14-second video clip and established that the former MP had not made any physical contact with the dog and there was insufficient evidence to file charges under Section 365 of Sri Lanka’s Penal Code.

The penal code provision makes sex with an animal a criminal offence carrying a jail term of up to 10 years for offenders.

Clad only in his underwear, the ex-MP made a gesture of exposing himself and the act appears to be aimed at amusing a person who was filming, who is not seen in the clip.

Investigators suspect that the release of the footage was a classic case of ‘revenge porn’, but claim there is insufficient laws in the country to deal with the new phenomena where former lovers would go public with intimate images after their relations go south.

“We suspect that Karadana did in fact film these acts that may have taken place in the past two years but decided to go public after a spat,” the officer said on condition of anonymity.

The leaking of the footage came days after the police arrested a Buddhist monk following a complaint from Marasinghe that the clergyman had molested his housemaid by ‘touching her face’.

Marasinghe had also complained to the police that the monk was visiting his flat in Borella where he had accommodated Karadana following an intimate relationship. The monk is accused of having an affair with Karanada, a charge police are not pursuing.

“The Borella police reported back to higher officers that they could not arrest anyone because this looked like a civil matter and there was no way police could get involved.

“Political pressure had been brought on the police to arrest the monk. The release of the footage came after the monk was put behind bars,” the officer said adding that the incident could encourage many more copy-cat incidents of estranged lovers resorting to “revenge porn”.

If the case goes to court it may also expose possible abuse of power by politically connected persons, according to legal experts who say filming a lurid act under Section 365 could also amount to being an accessory to a crime.

Ironically, Friday’s lurid footage was released at a press conference headed by former MP Hirunika Premachandra who herself was a victim of a violation of her privacy in 2020.

Conversations between her and former MP Ranjan Ramanayake had been leaked after the police seized compact disks and external hard drives in which Ramanayake had stored all his telephone conversations.

The recordings were selectively released to embarrass targeted individuals, but those behind the breach of privacy were never prosecuted.

“What the latest incident shows is the need to update our laws to protect the privacy of individuals,” the officer said.

Even before Karadana could go public with the footage, President Ranil Wickremesinghe had removed Marasasinghe as his parliamentary affairs advisor.

-economynext.com/ENCL

 

 

 

 

Editor_1
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