-By A Staff Reporter
(Lanka-e-News -01.Sep.2025, 10.30 PM) The campaign to root out bribery and corruption appears to have been given fresh breath. The Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption, long accused of slumber, has in recent weeks shown its teeth—snaring both the so-called “big fish” such as Shashindra Rajapaksa, and the smaller fry too.
One recent case involved the arrest of a timetable clerk at the Western Provincial Passenger Transport Authority in Borella. Acting on a complaint by a bus conductor in the Heyyanthuduwa area, investigators caught the official red-handed soliciting a bribe of Rs.200 for approving a running schedule and ensuring all required trips were granted. The sting took place on the morning of August 12.
If that was a small sum, the next case demonstrates the other end of the scale. On Friday (30), three officers of the Excise Department in the Northern Province were taken into custody, accused of extracting Rs.2 million to release a suspect said to have been detained with narcotics.
The officers—an Excise controller, a sergeant, and an inspector attached to the Vavuniya office—allegedly posed as officers of the Police Narcotics Bureau. They are said to have demanded the money from the suspect’s sister in return for his release. She lodged a complaint with the Northern Province Crimes Division, prompting a surveillance operation.
According to reports, when the sister arrived at the Vavuniya excise office with the money, one of the uniformed officers attempted to flee with the Rs.2 million in cash. He was intercepted after a chase, while subsequent interrogation led to the arrest of the other two. The suspects, aged 36, 32 and 48, are residents of Jaffna and Ariyanpathi.
The three men are expected to be produced before the Mallakam Magistrate’s Court. The incident has been formally reported to the Bribery Commission. Meanwhile, the suspect at the centre of the case, briefly released, has since been admitted to Tellippalai Hospital.
What is striking is not only the brazenness of the crime, but also the breadth of the campaign: petty clerks taking a few hundred rupees and senior officers pocketing millions are being pursued with equal determination, in the south as in the north.
-By A Staff Reporter
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by (2025-09-01 21:12:06)
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