By Ruwan Weerakoon
(Lanka-e-News -2026.June.17, 11.45 PM) Yoshitha Rajapaksa, the second son of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, was arrested on Wednesday by the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption (CIABOC). The arrest marks a major development in long-standing graft investigations surrounding his highly controversial 2006 entry into the Sri Lanka Navy and the subsequent use of public funds for elite overseas training.
Following his arrest, the 38-year-old former military officer was produced before the Colombo Magistrate’s Court. Rajapaksa was released on three personal bail bonds of Rs. 5 million each, slapped with a strict foreign travel ban, and ordered to surrender his passport to the court.
Rajapaksa arrived at the Bribery Commission's headquarters on Wednesday morning, having missed a previous summons due to conflicting court dates. Investigators placed the former temporary Lieutenant Commander under arrest after questioning him at length about the enlistment that launched his brief naval career.
According to CIABOC officials, the charges center on aiding and abetting corruption. Legal proceedings against high-profile figures have visibly accelerated under President Anura Kumara Dissanayake’s administration, which assumed office on a platform heavily focused on dismantling political patronage networks and enforcing state accountability.
The core of the state's criminal case rests on evidence that the entry requirements for the Navy’s elite executive branch were systematically manipulated to accommodate the former president's son.
The Academic Mismatch: Standard naval protocol required that cadet officers entering the executive track hold GCE Advanced Level qualifications in either the Science or Mathematics streams. Rajapaksa, however, sat for his A/Ls in the Arts stream.
Altered Gazettes: Investigators confirmed that official recruitment criteria were rewritten and republished in revised advertisements to match Rajapaksa's specific academic background. Separate discrepancies regarding his GCE Ordinary Level results were also quietly overlooked.
Beyond the initial fraudulent recruitment, CIABOC highlighted severe financial irregularities regarding how Rajapaksa secured a coveted, state-sponsored placement at the Britannia Royal Naval College (Dartmouth) in the United Kingdom.
Court submissions revealed that in September 2006, then-Navy Commander Admiral Wasantha Karannagoda bypassed standard military channels to write directly to the UK academy. The British institution agreed to open a slot on the 18-month course on the condition that the Sri Lankan government cover the full cost.
The state alleges that over Rs. 5.4 million in public funds were unlawfully diverted to finance Rajapaksa’s stint in England. Crucially, prosecutors pointed out that he was flown out to the UK before even completing his mandatory basic training at the Naval and Maritime Academy in Trincomalee—an irregular privilege that actively deprived a highly qualified, merit-selected naval cadet of a career-defining opportunity.
The naval recruitment case adds to a widening dragnet of legal challenges for the Rajapaksa family. Yoshitha Rajapaksa is already out on bail in two separate ongoing money-laundering prosecutions. One of those criminal cases involves unexplained assets used to purchase real estate, as well as his financial interests in a now-defunct private television network.
With a travel ban now securely in place, the anti-graft commission has signaled that additional charges and further investigative updates will be brought forward in upcoming court hearings.
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by (2026-06-17 21:03:31)
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