Namal Rajapaksa stays in custody till 6 November in Krrish bribery case

A Colombo court on Friday kept Sri Lankan opposition MP Namal Rajapaksa in remand custody until 6 November and turned down his bail plea in a bribery case linked to the Krrish Group’s property project in the capital.

Colombo Chief Magistrate Asanga S Bodaragama also further remanded Janaki Siriwardena, a former director of the Krrish Group. Both were arrested by the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption (CIABOC). Siriwardena has been in custody since 24 September.

The commission alleges that Rajapaksa, a Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna MP and the fourth suspect in the case, received Rs 70 million in three separate payments. In return, it says, he helped the company speed up the allocation of land owned by the Urban Development Authority at Transworks Square in Colombo Fort and obtain approvals without delay.

As the court sat, his father, former president Mahinda Rajapaksa, released a letter to his son. He recalled that when Namal asked permission to enter politics in 2010, he told him: “If you want to enter politics, do so. But be prepared to go to prison and face hardships.”

“Whatever anyone says, place your trust only in the judiciary,” the elder Rajapaksa wrote. He said he and his wife Shiranthi were being treated at Nawaloka Hospital, and asked Namal not to seek revenge on political opponents if he returns to power. “Children are not responsible for what their parents do. Not taking revenge is the way and tradition of the Rajapaksas,” he wrote.

Namal’s younger brother Yoshitha also faces cases, one of which, his father claimed, grew out of Yoshitha’s decision to join the Navy.