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Sri Lanka’s anti-corruption authorities have arrested former first lady Shiranthi Rajapaksa over allegations that a charity she founded misused donations collected for a children’s hospital.
The 73-year-old wife of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa was arrested in Colombo on Wednesday and taken to the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption (CIABOC) for questioning.
A CIABOC official said the arrest was linked to the activities of Rajapaksa’s Siriliya Saviya Foundation, which allegedly collected donations for a Positron Emission Tomography (PET) scanner for a children’s cancer hospital.
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Rajapaksa is expected to appear before a magistrate later on Wednesday, who will determine whether she can be released on bail.
Her lawyer, Manoj Gamage, said she had denied the allegations and would contest claims that donations raised through the charity were misappropriated.
The investigation centres on 10 million Sri Lankan rupees, equivalent to about $30,000, donated to the charity. CIABOC also arrested Pradeep Kariyawasam, the former chairman of the state-owned National Savings Bank, over the donation.
Kariyawasam is accused of authorising the use of public funds for the donation without complying with required financial regulations.
According to investigators, the charity continued soliciting donations for the PET scanner even after the Chinese government had already donated the equipment to the hospital.
Authorities allege that the funds subsequently raised were misused, a claim Rajapaksa has rejected. She has maintained that none of the money was misappropriated.
The former first lady had travelled to Singapore on September 16 for medical treatment, where she was served with a summons at Colombo airport requiring her to provide a statement to police upon her return.
She returned to Sri Lanka on Monday after filing a court petition seeking to prevent her arrest. However, her application for anticipatory bail was scheduled to be heard on October 12.
The case is part of renewed corruption investigations by President Anura Kumara Dissanayake’s government into members of the Rajapaksa family, which dominated Sri Lankan politics for nearly two decades.
Other members of the family have also faced legal proceedings. Rajapaksa’s eldest son and opposition lawmaker, Namal Rajapaksa, is currently in remand custody over allegations linked to an Airbus aircraft deal signed in 2013 during his father’s presidency.
The Rajapaksa family has consistently denied corruption allegations against its members and described the cases as politically motivated.
Mahinda Rajapaksa served as president from 2005 to 2015 and remains a prominent political figure, despite the family’s political decline following mass protests that forced his brother, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, from the presidency in 2022.
