The Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption (CIABOC) on Friday filed indictments before the Colombo High Court against former State Minister Shasheendra Rajapaksa and two other defendants in a long-running corruption case.
The co-accused are Sepalika Saman Kumari and Keerthi Bandara Kotagama. The indictment contains 10 charges, with 30 witnesses and 38 documents listed as case material, Ada Derana reported.
Prosecutors allege the trio used official influence to pressure officials at the Office for Reparations to obtain Rs.8.85 million in compensation for damaged properties. The buildings at the centre of the case stood on land belonging to the Mahaweli Authority of Sri Lanka in the Sevanagala–Kiriibban Wewa area and were unlawfully constructed.
The properties were damaged during the 2022 island-wide protests against the Gotabaya Rajapaksa administration. An earlier official decision had rejected compensation for them. Despite that ruling, prosecutors say the accused manipulated reparations officials to secure the payments.
The indictment is the culmination of an investigation that has been underway since 2025, when a former Director General of the Mahaweli Authority and a previous Reparations official were arrested over the same case. Shasheendra Rajapaksa was granted bail in October 2025 after several court hearings.
This case is distinct from the separate SriLankan Airlines Airbus bribery probe in which Shasheendra Rajapaksa is also named alongside former CEO Kapila Chandrasena.
The reparations indictment adds to a widening CIABOC docket of cases targeting figures from the former Rajapaksa administration.
Update (August 5): trial fixed for September 28
The Colombo High Court on Wednesday fixed September 28 as the date for the trial to begin.
The order was made when the case was called before the court, with Shasheendra Rajapaksa and his co-accused — who are on bail — appearing before the judge. The court directed that the trial commence on that date after considering submissions from the parties.
Ada Derana’s report described the case in its opening line as being against Rajapaksa “and three others,” but stated later in the same report that it was filed against him “and two others.” The Sinhala report by Hiru News gives three accused in total, which matches the three defendants named when the indictments were filed in June.
