MP Chamara Sampath Dassanayake has been arrested by the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption (CIABOC), after appearing before the commission to give a statement in an ongoing bribery investigation, the Daily Mirror reported.

The arrest followed the statement rather than preceding it: both the Daily Mirror and Hiru News report that he was taken into custody after he had appeared and given his account.

The allegation

Hiru News puts the matter under investigation as an alleged bribe of Rs. 8.1 million. It is the only one of the three filings to attach a figure to the allegation; the Daily Mirror describes it only as “an ongoing bribery investigation”, and NewsFirst reports the arrest without specifying an amount.

He had missed an earlier summons

Monday’s appearance was his second summons, not his first. Hiru News notes he had been asked to appear before the commission on 9 October to give a statement on the same matter and did not do so that day.

That sequence is the one this desk has been following: Dassanayake was summoned to give a statement to CIABOC on 9 October, failed to appear, and was re-summoned for Monday 12 October. The arrest is the outcome of that rescheduled appearance.

Context

Dassanayake, a Badulla District MP and a former Governor of Uva Province, has been the subject of several corruption investigations reported over the past months, including a CIABOC case concerning the purchase of goods for the Uva Provincial Council and a travel ban imposed and later lifted.

He is the second senior political figure taken into custody by an anti-corruption body within a week, after former First Lady Shiranthi Rajapaksa was arrested by CIABOC on 7 October.

Separately on Monday, former minister Chandima Weerakkody appeared before CIABOC to provide a statement, NewsFirst reported — a different matter, and no arrest has been reported in that case.

Not reported

None of the three filings says what the alleged Rs. 8.1 million bribe relates to, who is alleged to have paid it, or over what period. None reports whether he has been produced before a magistrate, whether he has been remanded or bailed, or what court will hear the matter. There is no comment from Dassanayake, his lawyers or his party, and no indication of whether he will be charged.

Sources: Daily Mirror, Hiru News, NewsFirst.