Former First Lady Shiranthi Rajapaksa was arrested on Wednesday morning by officers of the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption (CIABOC), NewsFirst reported.
She was taken into custody at the Kirulapone residence where former President Mahinda Rajapaksa is currently staying. The Daily Mirror reported that the arrest followed questioning by Bribery Commission officers at the residence in connection with an ongoing investigation.
The allegation
According to the Bribery Commission, NewsFirst reports, Rajapaksa was arrested over allegations that she obtained Rs. 10 million from a state bank and committed offences under the Public Property Act and corruption-related provisions through its alleged misuse.
No outlet names the bank, the date of the payment, or the purpose for which the money is said to have been obtained.
A different agency from the one she sought protection against
The arrest cuts across the legal position she had taken two days earlier, and it was made by an agency that position did not cover.
On 5 October, Rajapaksa filed an anticipatory bail application at the Maligakanda Magistrate’s Court seeking an order barring her arrest on return from medical treatment abroad. That application names the Director of the Financial Crimes Investigation Division as respondent — the Daily Mirror and NewsFirst differ on whether the papers name the FCID or the CID, a discrepancy that remains unresolved — and it is returnable on 12 October. She had separately been summoned to appear before the FCID on 13 October.
Wednesday’s arrest was made by neither of those bodies. CIABOC is a separate statutory commission, and the matter it names — a Rs. 10 million state bank payment under the Public Property Act — is not the subject identified in the reporting on the FCID summons, which concerned the Siriliya Saviya charity accounts and a CT scanner.
The practical effect is that an application drafted to prevent one agency detaining her at the airport did not prevent a different agency arresting her at home five days after she landed.
Context
Rajapaksa returned to Sri Lanka at about 11:20 p.m. on 5 October after a period overseas, having missed an earlier FCID appearance and a reported commitment to return on 19 September. She cleared immigration and customs on arrival without being detained.
Not reported
No filing yet says where she will be produced, or when. Neither outlet reports which court will take her up, whether she will be produced on Wednesday itself, or whether the Commission will seek a remand order.
Nor does any report name the state bank involved, state the date of the alleged transaction, or say whether the Rs. 10 million matter is connected to the Siriliya Saviya investigation the FCID has been pursuing. No outlet carries a response from Rajapaksa, from counsel appearing for her, or from the Rajapaksa family. There is no indication of what now becomes of the anticipatory bail application listed for 12 October, or of the FCID appearance set for 13 October.
Ada Derana also filed on the arrest, but its site has returned a CloudFront block to this desk for fifteen consecutive days and that report could not be retrieved.
Sources: Daily Mirror, NewsFirst.
