During the Yahapalanaya years Shiranthi Rajapaksa was questioned by the police in connection with corruption cases, but they never reached the point of arresting her. That changed on Wednesday. Two Bribery Commission vans and a police car made their way to the Rajapaksas’ house in Poorwarama, Kirulapone to pay an unannounced visit.
The flying squad, which included three women officers, then questioned the 73-year-old former first lady for two hours and arrested her at around 10am. As Shiranthi didn’t know that she would be having tea with law enforcement, she wasn’t dressed to go out. Following her arrest, she went upstairs to get ready and then came back down to get into one of the Bribery Commission’s vans. The small caravan set out for the short drive up to the commission’s offices on Bauddhaloka Mawatha, with Mahinda Rajapaksa, the former president, following in his own vehicle.
She was then produced before a magistrate and remanded at the Welikada Magazine Prison. The contrast must have been especially stark for her as she had just returned from Singapore on Monday night. She had disembarked via the $206-a-person Gold Route fast-track that allows passengers to glide through the separate immigration and customs channel at the VIP terminal.
At Welikada she refused a medical examination, saying that her own doctor would assess her the next day. The magistrate had permitted Shiranthi to visit her doctor at Nawaloka Hospital on Thursday, but the prison’s doctor said they wouldn’t be able to allow her to go to a private hospital, Unredacted learns. She was taken to the National Hospital today.
Shiranthi’s defence
Even though Wednesday’s arrest by the Bribery Commission was a surprise, it wasn’t news that Shiranthi was in law enforcement's crosshairs. The ongoing investigation into the Siriliya Saviya fund irregularities is a joint Bribery Commission-FCID probe. Her lawyers had even filed for anticipatory bail.
But before the courts could take up the bail application, the Bribery Commission beat the FCID to the arrest. The FCID probe had initially held the spotlight while the Commission stayed in the background, but the Commission took the lead when it arrested Shiranthi first. Unredacted learns the two units are competing, each racing to conclude probes, make arrests and secure indictments first.
Shiranthi was arrested on suspicion of defrauding the state-owned National Savings Bank of 10 million rupees, an offence under the Public Property Act, which has restrictive bail conditions.
Shiranthi had appealed for funds to buy a CT scanner for the Lady Ridgeway children’s hospital. She approached the National Savings Bank for a donation. The bank then transferred 10 million rupees to Siriliya Saviya’s account, in breach of its own procedures.
The Bribery Commission says the transfer resulted from outside interference. Its investigation found that Lady Ridgeway hadn’t asked for a scanner. The bank was also told it would cost 140 million rupees. A later independent inquiry by the bank’s board put the true cost of such a machine at about 50 million rupees.
In response, Shiranthi’s lawyer, Anil Silva, argued that Shiranthi had collected the money with the intention of buying the scanner, but was unable to as Siriliya Saviya’s operations were suspended in 2015 during the Yahapalanaya government’s corruption investigations. However, since then Siriliya Saviya doesn’t appear to have appealed its freezing of accounts.
Silva also argued Shiranthi could lose her eyesight or even die if remanded. However, Darshima Premarathne, the additional magistrate hearing her case, rejected the bail application, noting that no medical certificates had been produced to substantiate such a claim.
