Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe yesterday stated that he has instructed the Securities and Exchange Commission to probe into allegations of violations of the Colombo Stock Exchange market rules and Securities and Exchange Commission regulations.

He made this revelation at the parliament giving a special statement on the Central Bank Treasury bond issue.

Adding that Central Bank Governor Arjuna Mahendran will be on leave until the probe on the Treasury bond issue is completed, Wickremesinghe said that the government has created the environment where investigations could be done independently.

He reminded that all three members in the committee appointed to investigate the issue were expert lawyers. Some of those who level accusations at them have questionable backgrounds, he said. Therefore, they have no ethical right to attack the members of the committee, he added.

“As a result of past misdeeds, the Central Bank has now been forced to embark on the task of re-building their credibility and standing as the country`s most credible financial institution” Wickremesinghe added. “This is no easy task, since the spin masters have turned the institution into a wasteland. They left behind a legacy of mismanagement and misrule” he said.