Former Deputy Director of Prison Health Services, Hemantha Ranasinghe, has been arrested on bribery charges.

The arrest relates to an incident in 2024 when an inmate, admitted to the Welikada Prison Hospital due to illness, was later treated as a resident patient. It is alleged that Ranasinghe demanded a bribe of Rs. 1.5 million to continue keeping the inmate as a residential patient for further treatment, and had already accepted Rs. 300,000 of that amount.

Officers of the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption arrested Ranasinghe this morning (13) at his residence in Pitakotte.

He is expected to be produced before the Colombo Magistrate’s Court. Ranasinghe is currently serving as Acting Deputy Director of the National Institute of Mental Health in Angoda.