The Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption has asked the Colombo High Court to revisit the bail granted to lawyer Rakitha Rajapakshe and two co-accused in the Rs 120 million bribery case linked to organised-crime figure “Harak Kata”. The application is listed for hearing on Friday.
CIABOC has filed a revision application before the Colombo High Court challenging the Magistrate’s Court order releasing the three men, Hiru News reported on Thursday evening. A senior spokesperson for the Commission said the application is scheduled to be taken up before the High Court tomorrow, 30 October.
The case concerns an allegation that a bribe was solicited and obtained from the wife of an organised-crime figure in return for arranging favourable treatment for him in custody. Hiru gives the sum as Rs 12 crore — Rs 120 million — which matches this desk’s earlier reporting on the case exactly.
The bail order being challenged
The order CIABOC is contesting was made three months ago. As this desk reported in July, the Colombo Chief Magistrate’s Court granted bail to all three suspects on 28 July, after they had been remanded since late June.
Chief Magistrate Asanga S. Bodaragama directed that each be released on cash bail of Rs 100,000 together with two personal bails of Rs 1 million each, with sureties required to certify income or assets matching the value of the bail. The three were barred from leaving the country and ordered to surrender their passports. The Magistrate also directed CIABOC to report the progress of its investigation to court on 8 December.
The three accused are Rajapakshe, son of former Justice Minister Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe; Charith Abeysinghe, a former Samagi Jana Balawegaya organiser for Horana; and Aruna Sri Warushahennadige, a former Executive Director of Airport and Aviation Services (Sri Lanka) Limited.
According to CIABOC’s case, the three demanded Rs 500 million in March 2023 — while Nadun Chinthaka Wickramaratne, alias “Harak Kata”, was held under CID detention orders following his arrest in Madagascar — claiming they could prevent him from being harmed in custody, lift his detention orders, move him from Boossa high-security prison and have investigations against him dropped. The demand was reduced, and Rs 120 million is alleged to have been paid. These remain untested allegations before the court.
A second CIABOC move in two days
The revision application is the second step the Commission has taken against Rajapakshe this week. On Wednesday and Thursday, CIABOC suspended several of his bank accounts under proceeds-of-crime legislation, with Hiru reporting that several luxury vehicles were frozen as well.
A note on the source
Hiru’s own English headline for this filing describes the application as covering “Rakhitha Rajapaksa and three others,” which would make four accused. The Sinhala body of the same filing says ඇතුළු තිදෙනාට — three people including Rajapakshe. Three is consistent with every prior filing in this case and with this desk’s archive, and three is what is reported above.
Not reported
The filing does not set out the grounds on which CIABOC is challenging the bail — whether it alleges a breach of the existing conditions, points to new material, or argues the Magistrate erred in law. It does not say whether the Commission is seeking re-arrest or stricter conditions, nor whether the three accused have been noticed to appear on Friday. It gives no indication of what happens to the 8 December progress report if the High Court intervenes.
No other verified newsroom had filed on the revision application at the time of writing; a search across verified Sri Lankan outlets returned coverage of the account suspensions and the earlier remand hearings, but not this step.