Former Health Minister Keheliya Rambukwella arrived at the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption (CIABOC) on Tuesday morning to record a statement in connection with an ongoing investigation.
Daily Mirror reported that he arrived in a wheelchair and was questioned as part of the Commission’s continuing inquiries into the matter. Ada Derana and Hiru News both reported his arrival at the Commission to give a statement, without referring to a wheelchair.
None of the three newsrooms identified which investigation the statement relates to. All described it only as an ongoing inquiry, and this report does not assume a connection to any particular case.
Context
Rambukwella, who held the health portfolio under the previous government, is separately a defendant in a long-running substandard-medicines case before a three-judge Special High Court bench. Evidence in that case included testimony about expired rabies vaccines allegedly administered to patients, which prompted a doctors’ trade union to demand a response from the Health Ministry in June.
In May, Cabinet Spokesman Nalinda Jayatissa named Rambukwella among more than a dozen politicians whose corruption cases he said were advancing toward verdicts.
Recording a statement before CIABOC is an investigative step and does not indicate that charges have been filed or that any finding has been made.
