The Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption (CIABOC) has urged members of the public who have been affected by alleged malpractices involving Consultant Neurosurgeon Dr Maheshi Wijeratne of the Sri Jayawardenepura General Hospital to come forward with any information they may have regarding the case.

Dr Wijeratne was arrested by CIABOC officers on 18 June and was subsequently remanded by the Colombo High Court until 24 June.

The allegations centre around a large-scale financial exploitation scheme, in which Dr Wijeratne is accused of deliberately omitting essential surgical equipment—such as External Ventricular Drains (EVDs) and Ventriculo-Peritoneal (VP) shunts—from the hospital’s annual procurement list. Instead, she allegedly directed patients to obtain these items from external sources linked to herself or members of the hospital staff.

As a result, patients were forced to purchase life-saving surgical items at inflated prices. For example, an EVD that cost around Rs 17,500 through the Medical Supplies Division (MSD) in 2022 was being sold for between Rs 120,000 and Rs 250,000 via these unofficial channels. The current market price for an EVD is approximately Rs 46,500.

CIABOC’s investigation has so far uncovered around 300 affected patients, with statements recorded from 77 of them. Alarmingly, the Commission noted that many of these patients have since died.

The financial loss suffered by the 77 identified patients alone is estimated at nearly Rs 300 million.

CIABOC is now appealing to others who may have been impacted to provide any relevant evidence to assist the ongoing investigation.