Chichi Replies To CT – Urges Police To Act Against Harassment Complaint By Tatyana’s Stepdad

Rohitha Rajapaksa

FEBRUARY 10, 2021

Rohitha Rajapaksa, youngest son of Premier Mahinda Rajapaksa has responded to an article on Colombo Telegraph for the first time regarding the actions of his wife Tatyana’s stepfather and his alleged harassment of women at the Cinnamon Grand Hotel in Colombo.

In an email to the editor of the Colombo Telegraph Rohitha Rajapaksa called the actions of the man accused of harassment “despicable”said he and his wife condemn sexual harassment of any one ‘despite gender’ in the strongest terms.

The youngest Rajapaksa explained in his email requesting a right of reply that both his wife Tatyana and her mother had been estranged from N.V. Thivakaran for many years.

“The accused is solely responsible for his own actions, and I strongly encourage the management of Cinnamon Grand hotel and respective law enforcement authorities to do justice by the victims, independent of the accused’s social status. I would also like to further emphasize that at the point of writing to you, neither I nor any member of my family have directly or indirectly contacted the Cinnamon Gardens police regarding the accused,” the Space Systems Engineer said in his email to Colombo Telegraph.

Rohitha Rajapaksa made similar remarks about the matter on Twitter. ps://twitter.com/Rohitha_Chichi/status/13Raja58981521940635651?s=20

Rajapaksa in his email says that Colombo Telegraph published unverified facts in order damage the reputation of his family. However Colombo Telegraph wishes to point out that it is accurate that Thivakaran is still “legally” married to Tatyana Jayaratne’s mother and that was the basis on which the article was published. The article did not make a claim that Rohitha Rajapaksa or his family members have attempted to influence the police with regard to the incident.

We publish below the response in full:

I was extremely dismayed this morning to be made aware of an article in your newspaper website, “Colombo Telegraph” which carried my nickname in its title (and full name in body text) regarding an incident which had taken place at the Cinnamon Grand hotel.

I would like to emphasise that as a well-known organisation in Sri Lanka, it is a fundamental responsibility of the company and yourself as its Editor; to verify news prior publication.

Had the respective reporter made use of much needed investigate skills as a journalist, or simply contacted me for a clarification, I would have been very cooperative to state that, “The individual concerned ‘was’ married to my mother-in-law, but she and my wife (his step daughter) have been estranged from him for many years now.

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