By Skandha Gunasekara The Parliamentary Committee appointed to probe the brawl in Parliament is expected to refer the matter to the Supreme Court (SC) for more stringent penalties against the perpetrators. Chair of the Parliament Committee Deputy Speaker Ananda Kumarasiri told The Sunday Morning that once the investigation is completed they hope to bring the case before the Supreme Court. “It is my view that the actions of the MPs during the fracas need a more severe penalty than merely suspending them for a few days from attending Parliament. This is a serious issue. We must not take it lightly as the faith in Parliament would be lost,” he said. He said that the fourth committee meeting was convened a few days ago and that it had been decided that the footage from the private media would be handed over to the CID for further investigations. He noted that the Committee had examined CCTV footage of Parliament and had been able to identify a number of MPs who were directly involved in the brawl. “We have identified those who initiated the brawl as well as those who rushed the Speaker’s chair. We have also been able to separate the timings of each incident through the CCTV footage.” He pointed out that two of the committee members, namely MPs Chamal Rajapaksa and Chandrasiri Gajadeera, had refused to attend the meetings of the committee and therefore had decided to refer the investigation to the Police as well. “Two of the committee members do not attend the meeting. So we decided that instead of the Committee investigating the issue alone, we would involve the Police to ensure its impartiality,” he said. He said that he also wanted to make sure that the Police identified the same perpetrators as the Committee. He added that the final report would be handed over to Speaker Karu Jayasuriya who would then refer it to the Attorney General. He said the two MPs had informed the committee at the onset that they would not be attending the meetings. “We requested that they inform the Speaker in writing that they would not be attending, but they have failed to do so thus far.” Furthermore, he said that an initial estimate of the damages came to approximately Rs. 300,000. “The company that installed the microphones told that there were damages amounting to Rs. 200,000 while Parliament officials informed us that parliament property worth Rs. 30,000 had been damaged,” he said. However, the Deputy Speaker said that Government Valuer had given a lower estimate of the damages – to the tune of Rs. 175,000 – and that the Committee would be summoning the Government Valuer for clarification. “We have asked the Secretary to the Committee to summon the Government Valuer before the Committee so that he can explain to us why his valuation was far less than what we have estimated already,” he said, adding that the Government Valuer would meet the Committee on 3 January. The Committee consists of MPs Ranjith Madduma Bandara, Bimal Rathnayake, Mavai Senathirajah, Chamal Rajapaksa, Chandrasiri Gajadeera, and the Deputy Speaker as the Chair. The committee is scheduled to meet next on 3, 8, and 9 January.