Former Health Minister Keheliya Rambukwella was arrested by the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption (CIABOC) on Tuesday, hours after he arrived at the Commission to record a statement.
Ada Derana reported that Rambukwella went to the Bribery Commission on Tuesday morning in connection with an ongoing investigation and was taken into custody there. Daily Mirror and Hiru News both reported the arrest.
Hiru News, citing CIABOC, said he was due to be produced before the Colombo Chief Magistrate on Tuesday. Neither Ada Derana nor Daily Mirror carried that detail.
The investigation: recruitment above the approved cadre at Rupavahini
NewsFirst, reporting later on Tuesday, identified the matter behind the summons. It said Rambukwella had been called to record a statement over allegations that employees were recruited to the Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation in excess of its approved cadre, causing losses to the State.
NewsFirst also reported that CIABOC recorded statements from him the same day in a second, separate investigation — into the alleged theft of a historic moonstone from the site of the palace of King Sri Veera Parakrama Narendrasinghe, at the Warapitiya Uduwalawa archaeological site in Kundasale.
Ada Derana, Daily Mirror and Hiru News each reported the arrest without naming either investigation, describing it only as an ongoing inquiry. NewsFirst did not state which of the two matters the arrest itself was made under, and this report does not assume it.
Context
Rambukwella arrived at the Commission in a wheelchair earlier on Tuesday to give the statement, according to Daily Mirror. Ada Derana and Hiru News reported his arrival without referring to a wheelchair.
He held the health portfolio under the previous government and is separately a defendant in a long-running substandard-medicines case before a three-judge Special High Court bench. Evidence in that case included testimony about expired rabies vaccines allegedly administered to patients.
In May, Cabinet Spokesman Nalinda Jayatissa named Rambukwella among more than a dozen politicians whose corruption cases he said were advancing toward verdicts.
An arrest is an investigative step and does not indicate that charges have been filed or that any finding has been made.
