Shiranthi Rajapaksa arrested: What is case against Sri Lanka's ex-President wife?

Rajapaksa is being questionined her over the 10 million rupees ($30,300) of donations from a state bank received by the Siriliya Saviya charity, meant to be spent on a specialised scanner for Colombo's Lady Ridgeway Children's Hospital, news agecies said.

Shiranthi Rajapaksa, the wife of Sri Lanka's former President Mahinda Rajapaksa was arrested on Wednesday on allegations of misusing donations received for her charity when she was first lady, news agency AP said.

Anti-corruption authorities arrested the 73-year-old Rajapaksa from Colombo home on 7 September, according to BBC.

Rajapaksa is being questionined her over the 10 million rupees ($30,300) of donations from a state bank received by the Siriliya Saviya charity, meant to be spent on a specialised scanner for Colombo's Lady Ridgeway Children's Hospital, news agecies said.

What is the case against her?

Allegations against Rajapaksa point out that such a scanner had already been donated by the Chinese government. The then-head of the bank also was arrested for allegedly circumventing procedures in releasing the money to the charity. The court released him on bail later.

Rajapaksa has denied any wrongdoing and says the money has not been appropriated. She returned to Sri Lanka this Monday from Singapore, where she was receiving medical treatment. She had filed a court petition to try to prevent her arrest, but the hearing was set for 12 October.

After questioning Rajapaksa at her home police took her before a court, were she was sent for a week-long detension pending investigations. Police then escorted Rajapaksa, who had one eye bandaged from recent surgery, to a vehicle to be taken to a jail, AP reported.

The former first couple's son, lawmaker Namal Rajapaksa, also has been detained on charges of bribery.

Mahinda Rajapaksa's spokesperson, Manoj Gamage, has said the money is safe in Siriliya's accounts and that no fraud has occurred, BBC reported.

All about Mahinda Rajapaksa, family

Mahinda Rajapaksa served as president of Sri Lanka from 2005 to 2015. Rajapaksa, and his family werre adored by the country's majority ethnic Sinhala Buddhists after he and his brother Gotabhaya Rajapaksa led a military campaign to defeat the now-defunct Tamil Tiger rebels and end a 26-year civil war in the island nation in 2009, during his first term as president.

However, his popularity declined after his re-election in 2010 over allegations of bribery, corruption and the stifling of freedoms, leading to his defeat while seeking a third term in 2015. His family had wielded unbridled power, with his son, brothers, nephews and nieces holding top government positions.

The family made a comeback in 2019 when security emerged as a key concern following Islamic State-inspired suicide bomb attacks that killed 267 people in churches and hotels on Easter Sunday.Mahinda's brother, Gotabhaya Rajapaksa was elected president later that year.

But in 2022, protests broke out across the country as an economic crash brought on by the COVID-19 crisis, a tourism downturn and his economic decisions.

Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who was serving as leader at that time, was eventually toppled.

In 2024, Aruna Dissanayake, a Marxist member of Parliament from Colombo representing Marxist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), defeated prominent names including incumbent President Ranil Wickremesinghe, who finished third with just 17 per cent of the votes and Nam

al Rajapaksa, son of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, who managed less that 3 per cent of votes in the election.

Dissanayake became president on an anti-corruption platform in 2024 promising to take action against anyone suspected of corruption in the Rajapaksa family and previous administrations.

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HomeNewsWorldShiranthi Rajapaksa arrested: What is case against Sri Lanka's ex-President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s wife?