Former State Minister Shasheendra Rajapaksa was today indicted before the Colombo High Court on corruption charges filed by the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption (CIABOC) over the alleged unlawful payment of Rs. 8.85 million in compensation.
The indictments were served before Colombo High Court Judge Raveendra Premaratne, who released Rajapaksa and the two other accused on two personal bails of Rs. 1 million each.
The court also imposed a foreign travel ban on all three defendants and ordered that their fingerprints be recorded and a report submitted. The case was fixed for a pre-trial conference on August 5.
The other two accused are Sepalika Saman Kumari and Keerthi Bandara Kotagama.
According to CIABOC, the three defendants are alleged to have committed and aided an act of corruption by unlawfully obtaining a compensation payment of Rs. 8,850,000 for an unauthorised building and property belonging to the Sri Lanka Mahaweli Authority in Kiriibbanwewa, Sewanagala, which was damaged during the May 9, 2022 Aragalaya unrest.
The anti-graft commission alleges that, despite official instructions rejecting compensation for the unauthorised structure, the accused used their official influence to pressure officers attached to the Office for Reparations into approving the payment.
