The Wattala electoral organizer of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party, Ranil Tharanga, has been remanded until June 24 after being produced before the Negombo Magistrate’s Court on Friday on suspicion of financial fraud, NewsFirst reported.
Tharanga was arrested by Negombo Police on allegations of defrauding members of the public by promising overseas employment opportunities. The police did not disclose the number of complainants or the amount of money involved in their statement to NewsFirst.
The arrest adds to a string of recent foreign job racket cases moving through Sri Lankan courts as authorities tighten enforcement against unregulated recruitment. Earlier this month, the high-profile self-styled recruiter known as “Dubai Sudda” pleaded guilty in Kuliyapitiya Magistrate’s Court after Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment alerts prompted multiple victims to come forward.
The Tharanga case is the first foreign employment fraud charge to reach a magistrate’s court against a sitting party-level political office holder in the current cycle. Court documents have not been made public, and SLFP party headquarters has not yet issued a statement on the arrest of its Wattala organizer.
He is due to be produced again before the Negombo Magistrate on June 24. Sri Lanka’s foreign job rackets are a recurring source of consular complaints — earlier in the month, the Kilinochchi case involving an Indian national charged with defrauding migrant workers of Rs. 4.99 million underscored the cross-border footprint of such schemes.
