The Colombo High Court has sentenced a retired army officer, who served as manager of the Peliyagoda Fish Market, to six years of rigorous imprisonment with hard labor for illegally providing a fish-cutting table and accepting a bribe of Rs. 100,000 from a businessman to use it without obstruction.
High Court Judge Lanka Jayaratne also sentenced a former senior police officer, who was the General Manager of Security at the fish market, to four years of rigorous imprisonment. The officer had accepted the bribe on behalf of the retired army officer and kept it in his custody.
Both were fined Rs. 5,000 each and disqualified from registering as voters, voting, or standing as candidates in any future elections.
In a separate incident, the Bribery Commission arrested an Agricultural Research and Production Assistant at the Diyaluma Agricultural Service Center for accepting a bribe of Rs. 1.2 million.
The arrest took place at a restaurant on the Thanamalwila–Wellawaya main road following a complaint filed by a Mahawa resident.
The suspect had initially demanded Rs. 3.5 million to arrange the transfer of 12 acres of illegally occupied government land to the complainant for cultivation. He later received Rs. 1 million and accepted an additional Rs. 1.2 million as a bribe for the remaining amount.
