The Colombo High Court on Monday ordered that further evidence in the corruption case against former minister Keheliya Rambukwella and three co-accused be taken up again on 7 November.
The order was made before Colombo High Court Judge Rashantha Godawela when the case was recalled, Hiru News reported. The court issued summonses to witnesses numbered 5, 7 and 23, directing them to appear on the next date.
Rambukwella and the other accused were present in open court on Monday.
The charge
The indictments were filed by the Attorney General against the former minister, his son Ramith Rambukwella, Amali Nayanika Rambukwella and Nipuni Krishnika.
They allege that while Rambukwella was serving as Minister of Mass Media, Health and Environment during 2021 and 2023, he had several associates appointed to his private staff, and that the salaries and overtime allowances the ministry paid them were diverted to his personal expenses and political activities. The prosecution puts the loss to the State at more than Rs 8 million — Rs 80 lakh in the figure the filing uses.
Which case this is
Rambukwella is before the courts in several separate matters, and they are easy to conflate. This one concerns private-staff salaries and allowances, and sits before Judge Godawela at the Colombo High Court. It is distinct from the immunoglobulin procurement Trial-at-Bar, from the unlawful assets case in which Ramith Rambukwella was separately indicted, and from the travel ban imposed over non-payment of compensation reported last month.
The matter has also moved stage. Earlier reporting on this same set of allegations described the indictment stage before a different judge; what the court took up on Monday was the leading of further evidence.
Not reported
The filing does not say which witnesses had already testified, what evidence was led before Monday’s adjournment, or why the three witnesses required summonses rather than appearing voluntarily. It does not give the relationship of Nipuni Krishnika to the family — Hiru’s headline describes all four accused as family members, but only Ramith Rambukwella is identified by relationship in the body, and Krishnika does not share the surname. It does not state the number of staff appointments at issue or the current bail terms.
One point warrants caution. The filing gives the next date only as “the coming 7th”, which on the face of it is Saturday 7 November — not an ordinary sitting day. The source does not name the month, and this report reproduces the date as filed without resolving whether a different month was intended. This report rests on a single source; no other verified newsroom had filed on Monday’s hearing at the time of writing.