Yoshitha Rajapaksa arrested...

Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa's son, Yoshitha Rajapaksa, has been arrested by the Bribery or Corruption Commission in connection with an ongoing investigation.

The Bribery or Corruption Commission had initiated an investigation into the process that took place in connection with Yoshitha Rajapaksa joining the Navy and receiving training in Britain. Accordingly, in response to a summons issued by the Commission, he appeared before the Bribery Commission this morning.

Meanwhile, Admiral of the Fleet Wasantha Karannagoda, who served as the then Commander of the Navy, was also summoned before the Bribery Commission today in connection with this incident, but he has said that he has not received the letter regarding the summons.

Accordingly, Wasantha Karannagoda has been informed to appear before the Bribery Commission next week.

According to the investigations conducted by the Bribery Commission, it has also been revealed that there was a problem with the basic qualifications that Yoshitha Rajapaksa had to meet when joining the Navy. A cadet officer recruited to the Navy must have passed the Advanced Level Examination in the Biology or Mathematics stream.

Yoshitha Rajapaksa had appeared for the Advanced Level Examination in the Arts stream. For that reason, the Commission’s investigation has revealed that steps have been taken to revise the qualifications for recruiting Yoshitha Rajapaksa to the relevant position and re-advertise and recruit him.

 In addition, there was also a problematic situation regarding the Ordinary Level qualification at the time of recruitment, and the investigation conducted by the Commission revealed that it had also been amended to be equivalent to the qualifications of Yoshitha Rajapaksa.

Yoshitha Rajapaksa, the son of Mahinda Rajapaksa, who was recruited into the Navy with all these changes, left for Britain in January 2007 and received training at the British Naval Academy for over a year and a half at government expense.