Colombo, Aug 31 (V7N) – Sri Lanka's former finance minister Ravi Karunanayake was arrested on Monday for allegedly using state funds to pay his private employees, the country's main anti-corruption body said, as President Anura Kumara Dissanayake's administration intensifies a crackdown on corruption.
The former cabinet minister was taken into custody by the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption (CIABOC) following a lengthy interrogation. "The former minister was behind the payment of salaries to three people from the National Lotteries Board, but they did private work for him," a CIABOC official told AFP, requesting anonymity.
Karunanayake, a member of former president Ranil Wickremesinghe's administration, is the latest high-profile figure to be arrested amid a widespread anti-corruption campaign by President Dissanayake, who took office in 2024.
Another ex-minister, Keheliya Rambukwella, was arrested earlier this month for allegedly aiding the theft of a centuries-old sacred rock from the palace of the island's last Sinhala king. Rambukwella was health minister when Sri Lanka faced an acute shortage of medicines after defaulting on its $46 billion foreign debt in April 2022.
All the immediate family members of former president Mahinda Rajapaksa are also facing investigation or prosecution over money laundering, bribery and murder, though the Rajapaksas have denied all allegations.
Sri Lanka's anti-corruption drive has gathered momentum following mass protests that forced former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to flee the country in 2022 amid a crippling economic crisis. The government has recovered around 39 billion rupees (approximately $100 million) in assets linked to corruption since 2024 and is pursuing 400 high-profile cases. A July 2026 report by the Commission of Inquiry on Political Victimisation recommended thorough investigations into allegations of corruption and abuse of power by several political figures, including former Presidents Mahinda Rajapaksa and Gotabaya Rajapaksa.
