The Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption (CIABOC) carried out two separate high-profile arrests on Tuesday (7), detaining the former leadership of Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation (SLRC) and the Chairman of the Nuwara Eliya Pradeshiya Sabha in a coordinated wave of accountability action.
Former SLRC Chairman Sarath Kongahage and former Director General Devapriya Abeysinghe were arrested over allegations they recruited staff beyond the state broadcaster’s approved cadre limits and assigned them to duties for then-Minister Keheliya Rambukwella, NewsFirst reported. Investigators allege the unauthorised hires caused financial losses to the corporation.
In a separate operation, CIABOC officers detained the Chairman of the Nuwara Eliya Pradeshiya Sabha at around 9:10am over the 2021 approval of a building plan on government-owned land in the Magoda Grama Niladhari Division. The commission alleges the approval bypassed Sections 8 and 21 of the Urban Development Authority Act No. 41 of 1978 and provided “undue benefit to the applicant.”
Daily Mirror subsequently identified the Chairman as Velu Yogaraj, who also serves as Deputy Leader of the Ceylon Workers’ Congress (CWC), the main estate Tamil political party. Yogaraj was later remanded, adding a significant political dimension to the case — the arrest of a sitting party deputy leader is a rare accountability action in hill-country politics.
The two arrests come on the same day President Anura Kumara Dissanayake addressed Parliament with a concessional relief package and add to a widening list of active accountability cases. The commission is also pursuing the Mahinda Rajapaksa CIABOC notice on asset declarations, with an April 10 deadline, while the SriLankan Airlines Airbus bribery warrants and the Pillayan murder confession remain in motion.
Charge sheets and bail decisions in both Tuesday cases are expected in the coming days.
