World News | Former Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa's 97-yr-old Relative Arrested, Granted Bail
Get latest articles and stories on World at LatestLY. A 97-year-old relative of former Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa was on Wednesday granted bail by a Colombo court after being arrested on money laundering charges.
Colombo, Mar 5 (PTI) A 97-year-old relative of former Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa was on Wednesday granted bail by a Colombo court after being arrested on money laundering charges.
Daisy Forest Wickramasingha, the grand-aunt of Yoshitha Rajapaksa, the second son of Rajapaksa, was arrested under the Money Laundering Act.
She was produced before a Colombo suburban Magistrate's court, which ordered her release on three sureties of Rs 5 million each.
Yoshitha has been accused of purchasing a property for which he has been unable to explain the source of funds.
The investigation revealed that Yoshitha had maintained bank deposits worth over 59 million rupees jointly with his grand-aunt Daisy Forest, police said.
Rajapaksas claim that the ongoing legal action against them is part of a witch-hunt initiated by the current government led by Anura Kumara Dissanayake.
Dissanayake's party has pledged to revive all stalled cases of high-scale corruption.
Yoshitha's elder brother Namal Rajapaksa has also been indicted over the alleged misappropriation of funds from the Krish Hotel Project, an aborted Indian investment in Colombo.
(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)