Source : INDIA TODAY NEWS
A Sri Lankan court on Tuesday extended until October 16 the remand of lawmaker Namal Rajapaksa, the eldest son of former president Mahinda Rajapaksa, and former Krrish Group Executive Director Janaki Siriwardena in a bribery case linked to a stalled hotel project.
Namal, 40, who is already in remand custody, was produced before the Colombo Chief Magistrate’s Court, which issued the order. The Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption has filed the case against Namal and Siriwardena over an alleged bribe of 70 million Sri Lankan rupees connected to the project.
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Prosecutors have accused Namal of accepting the 70 million Sri Lankan rupees in 2013 from the hotel project, which never got off the ground. They alleged that, as a powerful politician during his father’s presidency, he had used his political influence to speed up necessary approvals.
Namal, an international rugby player, has said the money was sponsorship for an international rugby event held in Colombo in 2014. He has been in remand since September 4 in connection with a USD 2 million bribe in the purchase of Airbus aircraft for SriLankan Airlines in 2013. A second remand order was issued a week after the September 4 order in a separate money laundering case linked to the same Airbus deal. Last week, he was granted bail in one of the cases.
Namal’s party, the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna, has accused the government of politically victimising him through the cases and his continued remand. The National People’s Power government, however, has said action against opposition politicians is in line with its 2024 election pledge to clean public life and eradicate corruption. The latest court order keeps Namal and Siriwardena in remand until October 16 as the bribery case over the stalled hotel project continues.
With PTI Inputs
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SOURCE :- TIMES OF INDIA
