WORLD NEWS | Sri Lankan police quiz Gotabaya Rajapaksa over presidential cash

COLOMBO, Feb. 8 (PTI) — Former Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has been questioned by police over a large amount of cash found in his office-cum-residence. last year.

“On Monday, a three-hour statement was recorded at his private residence as directed by the court,” police spokesman Nihal Thalduwa told reporters.

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Protesters who occupied the capital’s presidential palace in July last year said they found more than 17 million rupiah in cash and handed it over to Fort Colombo police.

The police reported the matter to the court, which ordered Rajapaksa’s statement on the discovery of the cash to be recorded.

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The disgraced 73-year-old former president fled Sri Lanka for the Maldives on July 13 last year. From there, he traveled to Singapore and handed in his resignation on July 14, paving the way for incumbent President Ranil Wickremesinghe to take over as president. Later, Rajapaksa flew to Thailand. He returned home on September 2.

Rajapaksa and his family faced multiple allegations of misconduct between 2015 and 2019.

After he became president in November 2019, one of the cases involving alleged misuse of public funds to erect a monument to his parents was dropped on the basis of presidential immunity.

Lawyers said the case could now be reopened because he no longer enjoys presidential immunity.

The Rajapaksa family has dominated Sri Lankan politics for more than two decades. Mahinda Rajapaksa, the 76-year-old patriarch of the Rajapaksa family, was the country’s president and prime minister.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from a Syndicated News feed, the content body may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)