The Criminal Investigation Department has arrested a 30-year-old man over an alleged Rs 59.6 million fraud in which false information was entered into a private company’s computer system and money was moved into accounts, police say.

The sum involved is given precisely as Rs 59,656,496.84, Hiru News reported at 11.55 a.m. Colombo time on Saturday.

The allegation

Police allege the suspect, while employed at a private institution, entered false information into the firm’s computer data system and obtained the money into accounts.

The conduct is described as criminal breach of trust together with fraudulent criminal misappropriation — in other words, the allegation is not that an outsider broke into the system, but that someone with legitimate access to it used that access to falsify records.

How the case arose

The Financial Investigation Unit (4) of the Criminal Investigation Department opened the inquiry after receiving a complaint.

A team of officers from the CID’s Katunayake unit then arrested a suspect in connection with the alleged fraud on Friday (30). He is 30 years old and a resident of Maligawatte.

The CID is continuing its investigation.

A note on the figure

Hiru’s own English headline puts the amount at “over 50 million rupees.” The Sinhala text gives the exact figure twice — once in digits and once written out in Sinhala numerals — and the two agree to the cent at Rs 59,656,496.84. This desk has used the precise figure.

Not reported

The filing does not name the suspect or the company, does not say over what period the alleged false entries were made, and does not say whose accounts the money went into or whether any of it has been recovered. It does not state what charges the suspect faces or when he is due in court. No investigating officer is quoted by name.

This is a separate case from the Rs 1.45 million WhatsApp gift-parcel fraud reported by this desk earlier on Saturday. That arrest involved a 46-year-old woman from Nugegoda detained by the Computer Crime Investigation Division’s North Western Province unit at Katunayake airport. The two share only an arrest date and the Katunayake name; the suspects, amounts, investigating units and alleged methods are all different.

No other verified newsroom was carrying this story at the time of writing.