The Co-ordinating Secretary of Prime Minister D.M. Jayaratne has tendered his resignation following allegations that he had issued a letter which was used to release a container with heroin from customs.

Following the reports surrounding his involvement in releasing the container which had heroin in it, Keerthi Sri Weerasinghe handed over his resignation letter to the Prime Minister on December 9.

However, Weerasinghe maintains that the allegations levelled against him are baseless and untrue.

In a statement issued today, he denied that he ever wrote a letter to the Customs exerting any pressure to release the container but claimed that he did write a letter, on the request of the Gampola politician, Tharanga Vittachchi, to the private company South Asia Gateway Terminals to seek relief on demurrages for a container of bathroom fittings and lubricants.

Vittachchi had approached Weerasinghe to seek help on releasing the container which belonged to two businessmen known to him. The businessmen also had to pay 2 ½ months of demurrages on the container after not being able to clear it at customs while they shared their concern that the demurrages will eventually amount to more than the value of the goods.

Weerasinghe stated that he only wrote a letter to the private company to which the demurrages had to be paid and not to Customs.