As Colombo Telegraph reported last week, when the FCID questioned, the former secretary to the ministry of defence Gotabaya Rajapaksa said the purchases were done in a proper way. When subjected to deeper questioning he said the person responsible for all those matters was Air Marshal Roshan Gunatileke, who was the Air Force Commander at that time.
Gotabaya said that the former Air Force Commander was responsible “if there were financial irregularities.” He said he was not to be blamed for that. He said people should realize that the war was won because these fighters were there and there should not be any investigations into these matters. In the process Gotabaya forgot that as then functioning Secretary of the Ministry of Defence, he was the Chief Account Officer and was responsible for all financial transactions.
When the MiG deal fell into media spotlight in December 2006, it was highlighted that so-called government-government deal involved payment to a mysterious third party, Bellimissa Holdings, UK. Bellimissa was in fact a ghost company that did not exist in any form in the UK. Even London address it had provided to the Defence Ministry was false.
Confirming the media reports, last month, the Interpol Headquarters has reported to the the FCID that there was no company called Bellimissa Holdings Limited in the UK.