The wife of former Deputy Minister Sarana Gunawardena has been remanded until 6 October over an alleged attempt to bribe a Colombo High Court employee to secure a suspended prison sentence for her husband.
Colombo Chief Magistrate Asanga S. Bodaragama ordered Chinari Lakmanthi Hettiarachchi remanded on Friday after the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption (CIABOC) presented facts to the court, Hiru News reported. The Daily Mirror reported the same order and the same remand date.
The allegation
CIABOC alleges Hettiarachchi offered Rs. 50,000 to an office assistant attached to Colombo High Court No. 11, the Daily Mirror reported after her arrest earlier in the day.
The payment was allegedly intended to influence proceedings in a case being heard against the former Deputy Minister — specifically, Hiru reported, to persuade the presiding judge to impose a suspended prison sentence.
WhatsApp messages read to the court
Investigators told the court that the evidence came from a mobile phone seized from the first suspect — the office assistant — at the time of his arrest, and that messages recovered from it documented the arrangement, according to Hiru’s account of the hearing.
Three messages were put before the court:
- 14 August 2026 — a message reading “Charith come” was sent to the first suspect.
- 17 August 2026 — the first suspect replied that he would say within two days whether it could be done.
- 23 August 2026 — the first suspect wrote: “Madam, the job is done, keep the money ready. I am coming now.”
Investigating officers told the court the exchanges used a coded system and that many messages had been deleted.
Context
Gunawardena is a former Deputy Minister whose own bribery case has been before the Colombo High Court for some time; judgment in that matter has been listed and postponed previously. The allegation now facing his wife concerns an attempt to interfere with those proceedings rather than the underlying case.
The hearing was before the same Colombo Chief Magistrate who on the same day further remanded a former ministerial private secretary in a separate CIABOC investigation.
Not reported
None of the three reports names the office assistant beyond his status as the first suspect, says whether he has been charged or remanded, or identifies who “Charith” is. Nor do they state whether the Rs. 50,000 was actually paid, what stage Gunawardena’s own case has reached, or whether the presiding judge was aware of the alleged approach.
