(Lanka-e-News - 03.Oct.2025, 11.10 PM) Neville Wanniarchchi, a retired Lieutenant Colonel and long-time chief aide to Medamulana Percy Mahendra Rajapaksa – better known as former President Mahinda Rajapaksa – has been taken into custody by Sri Lanka’s Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption (CIABOC) and ordered to remand prison until October 17.
Wanniarchchi, once regarded as Rajapaksa’s most trusted personal factotum and gatekeeper, was arrested under Section 23(A)(1) of the Bribery Act and Sections 127(1)(c) and (d) of the 2023 Anti-Corruption Act.
According to prosecutors, he failed for eight years to submit mandatory declarations of assets and liabilities, despite repeated written requests and telephone reminders from the Commission. On the one occasion he briefly answered a call, investigators said, his sole response was: “I can’t come today.”
The Commission told court that Wanniarchchi’s unexplained assets exceed Rs. 280 million, including luxury vehicles, buses, houses, hotels, petrol stations and multiple bank accounts. A “substantial inquiry” was therefore under way and remand custody was necessary.
Appearing before Colombo’s Chief Magistrate Asanga S. Bodaragama, Wanniarchchi’s counsel pleaded for bail under any conditions. The court, however, sided with the Commission and ordered his remand until October 17.
Wanniarchchi is no ordinary suspect. For decades he was Rajapaksa’s inseparable companion, described in political circles as the former President’s “chief valet”. Beyond providing security, he is said to have handled every aspect of Rajapaksa’s personal life: dressing him, managing his meals, dispensing medicines, and screening visitors.
In return, Wanniarchchi amassed an empire. Once merely a loyal adjutant, he emerged as a man of immense means. The late underworld figure “Kajja of Migasara”, before his own assassination earlier this year, told a YouTube interview that Neville was not merely a millionaire but a “multi-billionaire” by local reckoning.
His remand represents not just a personal fall but a severe blow to Rajapaksa himself. For years, Wanniarchchi was both shield and servant – a man who stood between the Medamulana patriarch and the outside world.
As one veteran political analyst observed: “When experienced woodcutters bring down a mighty tree, they first lop off the strongest branches. Neville was one such branch. His fall suggests the trunk itself may soon be in jeopardy.”
For Rajapaksa, whose grip on Sri Lanka’s politics has already waned, the arrest of his closest aide sends a signal that the net is tightening.
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by (2025-10-03 20:58:50)
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