The director of a private institution has been arrested by the Colombo Crimes Division (CCD) for allegedly defrauding 21 individuals of Rs. 35.8 million on the promise of arranging overseas travel visas, police said.
The suspect, a 41-year-old resident of Panadura, was taken into custody on Wednesday after officers investigated 21 separate complaints filed against him, Newswire reported. According to police, the man collected a total of Rs. 35,800,557.86 from the complainants. The Colombo Crimes Division is conducting further investigations.
Visa-related fraud has surfaced as a recurring enforcement priority for the CCD this year, alongside a string of arrests of foreign nationals running unauthorised business operations on tourist visas. Sri Lankan victims of overseas-employment and visa scams typically pay out of pocket without contracts and have limited recourse beyond the police complaint route.
The arrest is separate from the foreign-cybercrime sweeps in Kollupitiya and Matara this week, where overseas nationals are accused of running fraud rings while resident in Sri Lanka. Here the alleged perpetrator is a Sri Lankan running a local institution that promised legitimate visa services to local clients.
