Update — September 9: The sum has passed Rs. 20 million, the case has been referred to the CID, and 13 more suspects are to be arrested. Six teachers have been interdicted and a senior district secretariat officer suspended. Jump to the latest.
Update — August 8: The sum under investigation has risen from Rs. 3 million to Rs. 16.2 million, and three more officers have been named. Details below.
Two female officials attached to the Norwood Divisional Secretariat have been remanded over the alleged misappropriation of money belonging to beneficiaries of the Aswesuma welfare programme — a sum police initially put at nearly Rs. 3 million.
The pair were arrested on August 1 by the Hatton Police Division’s Special Investigation Unit and produced before Acting Hatton Magistrate S. Parthiban, who ordered them remanded. One of the suspects had been in charge of the Aswesuma division at the secretariat, Ada Derana reported. Ada identified the two as a management assistant officer and a plantation community communication officer.
Investigators say a preliminary audit found that Aswesuma payments intended for beneficiaries were transferred instead to bank accounts belonging to relatives and acquaintances of the suspects, then withdrawn. Ada Derana reports the diversions ran between 2023 and 2025; Ada ties the money specifically to arrears from the first phase of payments made to low-income recipients in 2024.
Anonymous letter triggered the audit
The case surfaced after Nuwara Eliya District Secretary Thushari Thennekoon received an anonymous letter alleging that several Aswesuma beneficiaries under the Norwood secretariat had not received their payments. The two officials were transferred to other divisional secretariats in the district while a formal investigation began.
Norwood Divisional Secretary Sameera Gamlath lodged a complaint with police on July 31, and the arrests followed. A 10-member audit team drawn from the Nuwara Eliya District Secretariat and the Finance Ministry later confirmed that the fraud had taken place, and remains stationed at the secretariat. Statements have been recorded from all Grama Niladhari officers there and from several Aswesuma division staff.
Three more officials at the secretariat have since been suspended by the district secretary over alleged involvement.
Ada Derana reported that beneficiaries who came to the office asking about missing payments were told the funds would be credited if approved, and warned not to return.
Manjula Suraweera Arachchi, MP and chairman of the Nuwara Eliya District Coordinating Committee, said an urgent audit is being arranged to check whether similar fraud involving Aswesuma and Samurdhi payments has occurred at other divisional secretariats in the district.
Update — August 8: the figure more than quintuples
The Special Investigations Unit of the Hatton Police Division is now investigating a fraud of Rs. 16.2 million in Aswesuma funds at the Norwood secretariat, more than five times the sum first reported, the Daily Mirror reported.
Divisional Secretary Sameera Gamlath complained to police on August 6 that the scale of the fraud had grown to that figure and that three more officers are involved, beyond the two already arrested. That brings the number of officials implicated to five.
The two women arrested by Hatton Police at the start of the month have been remanded until August 11.
Audit officers from the District Secretariat and the Ministry of Finance examined Aswesuma payments for 2023 to 2025 to establish the fraud, and investigations are continuing. Statements are still being recorded from Grama Niladhari officers and secretariat staff.
Suraweera Arachchi said a further team of audit officers would be appointed to examine Aswesuma and Samurdhi payments — and the Rs. 5,000 relief allowance paid during the Covid-19 pandemic — across all ten divisional secretariats in the Nuwara Eliya district.
Update — September 9: past Rs. 20 million and referred to the CID
The two women arrested at the start of August were produced before the Hatton Magistrate by Skype on September 8 and remanded again, this time until September 22, Hiru News reported.
The Hatton Division Investigation Unit told the court the sum defrauded now exceeds Rs. 20 million, and that because it has passed that threshold the investigation has been referred to the Criminal Investigation Department. A further 13 suspects connected to the fraud are to be arrested.
Two findings widen the case beyond the divisional secretariat:
- Audit officers from the Finance Ministry and the Nuwara Eliya District Secretariat found the two suspects had credited money to the bank accounts of six teachers working under the Hatton Zone Education Office. On a notification by District Secretary Thushari Thennakoon, the Secretary to the Central Provincial Ministry of Education has temporarily interdicted all six, and their accounts are being examined.
- Large sums were reportedly credited to an account belonging to a brother of one of the main suspects, who held a senior post at the Nuwara Eliya District Secretariat itself. The District Secretary has suspended him.
That second point matters: until now every official named sat at the Norwood divisional secretariat or in the Hatton Zone Education Office. This is the first suspension reaching the district secretariat — the same office whose audit team uncovered the fraud.
How the figure has moved
| Date | Sum alleged | Officials implicated |
|---|---|---|
| August 1 | Rs. 3 million | 2 arrested |
| August 6 | Rs. 16.2 million | 5 |
| September 8 | Over Rs. 20 million | 2 remanded, 13 arrests pending, 6 teachers interdicted, 1 district officer suspended |
The sum has grown roughly sevenfold in five weeks. Thennakoon, who opened the original inquiry after an anonymous letter, is the constant across all three stages; the audit she commissioned is what has driven each escalation.
Hiru did not name any suspect, say what the 13 pending arrests relate to, or state whether the six teachers are treated as suspects or as account-holders whose details were used. Ada Derana was unreachable when this update was filed — the domain returned a CloudFront block — so its account of the September 8 hearing could not be checked.
Note that Hiru’s listing headline for this report (“6 teachers suspended for Aswesuma money scam”) does not match the article’s own title or its lead, which is the remand and the CID referral.
