A 41-year-old pharmacy owner has been remanded until 22 September over the alleged sale of prescription medicines without prescriptions, in a case police say involved schoolchildren and a distribution network running across five towns in the Kegalle district.
The Mawanella Magistrate’s Court made the order, Hiru News reported. The suspect — a resident of Ginihappitiya, Hemmathagama, and known among drug users by the nickname “Pethi Akka” — is alleged to have sold misuse-prone tablets for intoxication over several years.
A decoy purchase made the case
The arrest followed a raid at the suspect’s pharmacy at the Gampola Junction in Hemmathagama, carried out by a joint team: Food and Drug Inspector S. A. R. J. Sooraweera of the Kegalle Regional Director of Health Services Office, working with Hemmathagama Police officers led by Inspector Saman Kumara under the direction of OIC Chaminda Gunaratne.
Police say the operation turned on a decoy purchase: an undercover civilian bought misuse-prone prescription tablets for Rs. 500 with no medical prescription presented.
That detail is what distinguishes this from a records or licensing case. A regulatory inspection can establish that a pharmacy’s paperwork is deficient; a controlled purchase establishes that a sale actually took place across the counter without a prescription.
The joint composition of the team is also notable — a health ministry drug inspector alongside police, rather than police alone, which is the configuration used where the alleged offence sits under pharmaceutical regulation as well as criminal law.
The allegations
Investigators say the tablets were sold to schoolchildren and local youths without age restrictions.
The alleged distribution ran well beyond the shop counter. Police say the network operated across Mawanella, Gampola, Aranayaka, Horewala and Dippitiya, using delivery riders as well as motorcycle deliveries made by the suspect in person.
If established, that pattern describes something closer to a distribution operation using a licensed pharmacy as its supply point than an over-the-counter lapse — which is likely why the court was asked for, and granted, a remand order rather than bail.
Not reported
Hiru’s report is the only account filed at the time of writing; no other verified newsroom had covered the case. It does not name the suspect, identify which prescription medicines were involved, or state the quantity recovered in the raid.
It does not say what charges have been filed or under which statute, how long the investigation ran before the decoy operation, how many delivery riders are alleged to have been involved or whether any have been arrested, or how investigators established the alleged sales to schoolchildren. Nor does it say whether the pharmacy’s licence has been suspended or whether the Regional Director of Health Services has taken separate regulatory action. No response from the suspect or a lawyer is reported.
