Image: Former President Ranil Wickremesinghe meting with Lyca Mobile Chairman Subaskaran Allirajah in London.
The London-headquartered Lyca Group has been actively expanding its operations in Sri Lanka with Chairman and Founder Subaskaran Allirajah “indirectly, deviously and circuitously, undertaking acquisitions in the local media sector”, states a petition filed before the Supreme Court.
“These transactions have been carried out through proxies to circumvent Sri Lankan regulations prohibiting foreign ownership of media entities, and this also raises concerns about potential violations of Sri Lankan laws and serious threats to national security and the sovereignty of Sri Lanka,” maintains the petition, filed in the public interest by civil rights activist Jamuni Kamantha Thushara.
Sixty respondents are named, including the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka (TRCSL), Secretary to the Ministry of Digital Economy, Secretary to the Ministry of Defence, all the Members of Cabinet, ten companies including several holders of Sri Lankan television and radio broadcasting frequency licences, company directors as well as Mr. Allirajah and his wife.
The petition lists eight companies directly or indirectly owned and controlled by or belonging to the Lyca Group. Many hold television and radio broadcasting permits issued by Sri Lanka’s then Ministry of Mass Media and TV and radio broadcasting frequency licences granted by the TRCSL.
“Through illegal, unlawful, wrongful, devious, and circuitous schemes, structures, and proxies, the Lyca Group currently owns and/or controls 11 TV and radio channels and broadcasting licences,” it states.
VIS Broadcasting (Pvt) Ltd operates and broadcasts Monara TV, Sitha FM, Red FM and Tamil FM while GMR Networks (Pvt) Ltd operates and broadcasts Athavan TV and Athavan Radio. Colombo Communications (Pvt) Ltd operates and broadcasts Shree FM, Ran FM and EFM while EAP Broadcasting Company (Pvt) Ltd operates and broadcasts Swarnavahini and ETV.
Sixty percent of shares in EAP Broadcasting are owned by another respondent, the Sri Lanka-registered Ben Holdings (Pvt) Ltd, while the remaining 40% is held by the Singapore-registered Blue Summit Capital Management Pte Ltd.
Blue Summit is owned by a Portugal-incorporated company named Pettigo Comercio Internacional Lda, of which the majority and controlling shareholder is Prematharshini Subaskaran, the wife of Mr. Allirajah. Pettigo Comercio also owns several intellectual properties of the Lyca Group, the petition states.
Other winding ownerships, directorships and connections are described in the petition. For instance, Sri Lanka-incorporated Zentel Holdings (Pvt) Ltd fully owns yet another entity named Sky Media Network (Pvt) Ltd which, in turn, owns VIS Broadcasting. And Asia Infotech Services (Pvt) Ltd, also formed in Sri Lanka, owns 80 percent of shares of MGMR Networks.
Several individuals, too, are cited as respondents. Among them is Govindasamy Thuraiappah Jeyaseelan, a group director of Ben Holdings and former Chief Operating Officer of Lyca Mobile UK; and Niruthan Rajasundaram, a shareholder in several of the named companies.
Both are described as “specifically declared by the Ministry of Defence as a person with impermissible security clearance (i.e. a person to whom the Ministry of Defence has refused to grant security clearance)”. Despite this, Mr. Jeyaseelan and Mr. Rajasundaram now controlled several media channels and broadcasting licences “through devious and circuitous corporate structuring, design, and scheme”, the petition asserts.
“In the said cirucmstances, permitting the operation of 11+ media channels, and broadcasting institutions, which owns, inter alia, significant transmission infrastructure in the country, including transmission towers in the Pidurutalagala, poses serious threats to the national security and sovereignty of the country,” it states.
Using flowcharts, the petition sketches out how each of these companies and persons is interconnected. The direct and/or ownership of the Lyca Group in Sri Lanka’s mass communication companies, therefore, exceeds 40 percent which it stresses is “a devious circumvention of the Exchange Control Regulations of Sri Lanka”.