Former Krrish Group director Janaki Siriwardena has been arrested and remanded over an allegation that Rs 70 million was paid to Namal Rajapaksa in three instalments. CIABOC says the money was connected to assistance over the Transworks Square property and approvals. These remain allegations. But they open a new chapter in a development that has loomed, unfinished, over Colombo for years.
One of Colombo’s most conspicuous unfinished buildings has suddenly acquired another layer to its already complicated history.
Former Krrish Group director Janaki Siriwardena was arrested yesterday by the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption and subsequently ordered by the Colombo Chief Magistrate’s Court to be remanded until October 6.
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The allegation is serious. CIABOC alleges that Siriwardena provided Rs 70 million to Parliamentarian Namal Rajapaksa on three separate occasions in return for his assistance in securing and expediting matters connected with the Transworks Square property in Colombo Fort for the Krrish development.
These are allegations before the courts. Siriwardena is entitled to the presumption of innocence, as is Rajapaksa in respect of allegations against him. Arrest, remand and an accusation by an investigative agency do not amount to conviction.
But what happened in court yesterday makes this considerably more than another arrest headline.
Colombo Chief Magistrate Asanga S. Bodaragama also directed prison authorities to facilitate CIABOC investigators recording a statement from Rajapaksa, who is already in remand custody, in connection with this investigation.
The allegation therefore raises a question extending beyond two individuals.
What exactly happened when one of the most valuable pieces of state-controlled real estate in central Colombo became associated with one of Sri Lanka’s most ambitious private developments?
The property at the centre of the allegation is Transworks Square in Colombo Fort, then belonging to the Urban Development Authority. CIABOC’s case, as reported from court, is that the alleged Rs 70 million was paid in three instalments in return for assistance in obtaining the property for Krrish Transworks Colombo and expediting necessary approvals.
If prosecutors eventually bring evidence capable of proving that allegation, the public-interest issue will not end with the payment itself.
It will extend to the machinery of government surrounding the transaction.
Land owned or controlled by the State is public property. When exceptionally valuable state land is transferred, leased or otherwise made available for commercial development, citizens are entitled to expect that the process is transparent, properly valued and insulated from private political influence.
That principle matters regardless of the identity of the politician, developer or government involved.
And there is a physical reminder of the Krrish saga standing in Colombo.
The unfinished development has occupied part of the city’s skyline for years. A project once promoted as a transformative mixed-use development became instead a highly visible monument to an investment that did not develop as originally envisaged.
Yesterday’s arrest does not explain why the building remains unfinished. Nor should separate controversies surrounding Krrish automatically be combined into a single allegation.
Indeed, that distinction is particularly important here.
The Rs 70 million allegation now being investigated concerns alleged payments connected with assistance over the Transworks Square property and approvals. It should not simply be conflated with earlier proceedings concerning Krrish-related funds allegedly intended for rugby promotion. Reporting on corruption investigations becomes dangerous when separate transactions, cases and allegations are collapsed into one narrative merely because some of the names overlap.
What CIABOC now has to do is considerably harder than making an arrest.
It has to establish the evidence.
Where did the Rs 70 million allegedly originate? On what dates were the three alleged payments made? Through what mechanism did the money move? What documentary or witness evidence supports the allegation? What specific assistance is Rajapaksa alleged to have provided? Which public authorities were involved in the land and approval processes? And did any official decision change because of the alleged intervention?
Those questions ultimately belong in court.
There is also a broader institutional test here for the Government.
President Anura Kumara Dissanayake has repeatedly made accountability and the proposition that nobody is above the law central to his administration’s political message. That principle cuts in both directions.
Formerly powerful people must not receive immunity because they were powerful.
But neither can prosecution become punishment before conviction.
Investigators investigate. Prosecutors prosecute. Courts determine guilt.
That separation is particularly important when the accused or investigated figures belong to a political family that once dominated the State.
The public deserves answers about Krrish.
Janaki Siriwardena and Namal Rajapaksa deserve due process.
Sri Lanka should be capable of insisting upon both at the same time.
