Opposition MP Chamara Sampath Dassanayake used a parliamentary speech on Wednesday to press two separate corruption claims — one aimed at the case against Namal Rajapaksa, the other at the government’s expressway programme.
Businessman Nimal Perera, whose evidence was cited in Rajapaksa’s arrest, should himself be arrested, Dassanayake said, according to the Daily Mirror.
“The Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption (CIABOC) should know that giving a bribe is also an offence.”
He alleged that Perera had fled the country after involvement in several scams in Sri Lanka.
Perera was already named a suspect — five days before the demand
The premise of the demand does not hold against the court record. At the remand hearing on 4 September, Perera was named a suspect in the case, as reported when Rajapaksa was remanded over an alleged Rs. 100 million Airbus bribe.
That is a change from the position two months earlier. On 14 July, when a lawyer appearing for Perera sought to make submissions, the Colombo Chief Magistrate said they were unnecessary — because Perera had not been named a suspect. No outlet has reported when or why his status changed.
The “fled the country” characterisation also sits awkwardly with the court account. Investigators travelled to Australia, where Perera lives, and recorded a statement from him after he declined to return to Sri Lanka citing death threats. His evidence was given as an affidavit.
This names the evidence the SLPP would not
The remarks fill a gap the party’s own leadership left open. Earlier the same day, SLPP General Secretary Sagara Kariyawasam said the evidence against Rajapaksa could not be trusted but named no document, witness or investigative step. Dassanayake identifies it: Perera’s.
Rajapaksa’s own defence made the same attack in court on 4 September, arguing that the Criminal Investigation Department had not believed Perera’s 2019 statement and asking how he could be believed in 2026.
”Who gets the commissions?”
In a second report of the same sitting, Dassanayake questioned whether commissions are being collected on expressway transactions.
“The President has said only local funds will be used for three expressway projects. However, one has to spend dollars to purchase raw materials such as tar. One wonders as to who is going to get the commissions out of these transactions.”
The argument is that rupee financing does not eliminate foreign exchange exposure, because bitumen is imported. He asked whether such funds would be “credited to the Pelawatte account,” claiming the money held there exceeds the EPF and ETF. Pelawatte is the location of the National People’s Power headquarters — the same rhetorical device Ranil Wickremesinghe used on 6 September when he asked whether the country is governed “from Parliament or Pelawatte”.
The claim about local funding is itself new information. When Transport Minister Bimal Ratnayake told Parliament on Tuesday that work on three expressways would begin this year — Katunayake–Chilaw, Kurunegala–Dambulla and Kahatuduwa–Ingiriya — he gave no funding source for any of them.
Dassanayake made a further allegation, that the head of the state-owned Lak Pohora had sold fertiliser outside at an inflated price: Rs. 16,000 a bag against a usual Rs. 9,000.
Not reported
The Daily Mirror carries no response from CIABOC, the government, the Road Development Authority or Lak Pohora, and gives no evidence for any of the allegations. None has been tested. Dassanayake also predicted the arrest would make the SLPP’s Anuradhapura rally “a resounding success,” saying the Opposition would be advised to attend despite not being invited.
No other newsroom filed on the remarks; Ada Derana was blocked domain-wide while this was written.
