Chamara Sampath Dassanayake. File photograph: Newswire
The Sri Lankan MP Chamara Sampath Dassanayake, a former Uva chief minister who once forced a Tamil school principal to kneel before him, has been remanded over allegations that he took bribes in exchange for helping companies export phosphate through the state-owned Lanka Phosphate Limited.
Dassanayake, the New Democratic Front MP for Badulla, was arrested by the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption (CIABOC) on 12 October after appearing before it to give a statement. He was produced before the Colombo Chief Magistrate Asanga Bodaragama and remanded until 23 October .
According to details released by the commission , three selected companies were allowed to export phosphate through Lanka Phosphate Limited without following the prescribed procedures, and in return allegedly made payments of Rs 5.9 million, Rs 2.2 million and Rs 300,000. The money, totalling Rs 8.4 million, was allegedly deposited into the bank account of Dassanayake's former private secretary, Sumathipala Liyanarachchi, and used for the MP's political promotion. Earlier reports of the investigation had put the total at Rs 8.1 million.
Dassanayake is brought before the Colombo Chief Magistrate's Court on 12 October. Photograph: Ada Derana
Liyanarachchi, who served as Dassanayake's private secretary when he was state minister of primary industries, was arrested by CIABOC on 21 September. The commission told court the investigation began after an anonymous complaint in 2023, and that seven more suspects were due to be arrested.
The commission also alleges that Dassanayake demanded Rs 1.2 million from a gem businessman and accepted Rs 500,000, and that he demanded and received money from two other gem businessmen.
It is the second time Dassanayake has been arrested by the commission. In March 2025 he was arrested over the alleged misuse of Uva Provincial Council funds while he was chief minister, and was later granted bail.
As Uva chief minister in 2018, he faced an outcry after forcing a Tamil school principal in Badulla to kneel before him, prompting a Human Rights Commission inquiry .
His arrest is the latest in a series of corruption arrests of former ministers under the National People's Power government, which says 19 former ministers have been convicted in bribery commission cases since it came to power. The former foreign minister Rohitha Bogollagama and Shiranthi Rajapaksa, the wife of Mahinda Rajapaksa, who is accused of overseeing war crimes and genocide against Tamils, were arrested last week .
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