A Group of concerned Canadian citizens of Sri Lankan Tamil origin are engaged in the process of submitting a formal complaint through lawyers to the Financial Crimes Investigation Department (FCID) of the Sri Lankan Police about alleged misappropriation of funds by Northern Province Chief Minister Canagasabapathy Visuvalingam Wigneswaran and his “adviser” Nimalan Karthigeyan Rasiah.

The complaint to the Sri Lankan Police FCID concerns a sum of 50,000 Canadian dollars that was handed over in Toronto for the Northern provincial council to be utilised for rehabilitation and re-sellement projects in the North. The money was allegedly accepted on behalf of chief minister Wigneswaran by Mr. Nimalan Karthigeyan Rasiah who was introduced to Canadian Tamils as an Australian citizen now working as a consultant to the Northern provincial council and as “strategic adviser” to the chief minister. Apparently Mr. Rasiah popularly known as Nimalan was in charge of Wigneswaran’s itinerary in Canada while the Northern chief minister visited Canada in January 2017.

An organization calling itself the Tamil Canadians Civil Society Forum organized a fund raising dinner in honour of Wigneswaran during his January 2017 sojourn. Tickets were priced at 500 and 1000 Canadian dollars each. A sum of 113,500 Canadian dollars was raised by way of selling Dinner tickets. The total sum of expenses incurred in connection with the dinner was 63,350 CDN $. This left the organizers with a profit of 50,150 CDN$

The dinner was a financial success. However the organizers donated the proceeds to the chief minister for the use of the NPC. 50,000 dollars raised through this dinner was given to Mr. Wigneswaran to be used for rehabilitation and reconstruction projects in the North. It is alleged that he money was accepted by “Nimalan” on behalf of the chief minister in the presence of Mr. Wigneswaran.

Though the money was accepted with the assurance that an official receipt would be issued on behalf of the Chief minister and Northern provincial council after Mr. Wigneswaran returned to Sri Lanka it is alleged that there has been no proper response so far. The chief minister has also failed to furnish details of the projects and money allocations for NPC rehabilitation projects to the donors as promised in Canada/

Meanwhile there also have been allegations that Mr. Wigneswaran and his strategic adviser Nimalan Karthigeyan Rasiah collected large sums of cash elsewhere in Canada during the 2017 visit for the ostensible purpose of rehabilitation projects to be undertaken by the NPC. However thee have been no reports of any such projects commencing in the North so far.

When NPC opposition leader Sinnadurai Thavarajah raised a question on May 24th at the NPC about money allegedly donated to the NPC through the chief minister during his foreign trip, Mr. Wigneswaran blatantly declared that no money had been received by him during his overseas trip.

This statement and the deafening silence by Mr. Wigneswaran and his strategic adviser about the money donated in Canada has perturbed many

While they were pondering about what to do the recent incidents in Jaffna have caused much shock. With the chief minister adopting a holier than thou attitude and claiming to undertaking a campaign to cleanse his board of ministers of corruption, some concerned citizens in Canada feel that the manner in which the chief minister and his strategic adviser have handled the issue deserves greater scrutiny

Therefore this group is now engaged in the process of sending a formal complaint through legal channels to the Sri Lankan Plice FCID to investigate the said donation and find out whether the money has been utilised properly or misappropriated criminally.