On August 22nd, the Sri Lanka police took custody of the former President Ranil Wickremesinghe, for allegedly ‘misusing the government funds’ for private deeds. Wickremesinghe was questioned by the police officials over his private visit to London in September 2023 with the aid of government money. In 2023, Wickremesinghe, while he was the Head of the State visited London to attend a ceremony related to his wife at a British University. He had made a stop in London to attend the event, while coming back from Havana in the aftermath of attending the G-77 summit.
“We are producing him before the Colombo Fort magistrate”, a police official said. Officers reiterated that they were pressing charges against the former President for using state resources for personal purposes. Ranil Wickremesinghe and his wife Maithree had attended a ceremony at the University of Wolverhampton in Britain.
The Criminal Investigation Department(CID) of Sri Lanka has also alleged that Wickremesinghe even paid his bodyguard’s from the state fund, while on a private visit. However, the former President has rejected all these allegations and has asserted that his wife’s travel expenses were borne by her separately and state funds were not misused.
Ranil Wickremesinghe served as the acting President of Sri Lanka from 2022 to 2024, in the aftermath of the ouster of the Gotabaya Rajapaksa in 2022. He was appointed as the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka in May 2022 by the Rajapaksa. After the dethroning of the Rajapaksa by a civilian coup due to the spiraling corruption, mismanagement of the sovereign funds coupled with spiraling economic crisis, Wickremesinghe assumed the role of the President in July 2022.
Wickremesinghe is credited for bringing economic stability in the country post the 2022 economic crisis. He played a vital role in reducing the hyperinflation and getting the approval of the International Monetary Fund(IMF) bailout package for Sri Lanka. He also initiated numerous economic reforms to bring stability in the country such as ensuring cost reflective pricing for electricity, petroleum and other essential goods. Wickremesinghe also ran for the 2024 Presidential elections, however, lost against the National People’s Power(NPP) party led by the current President of Sri Lanka, Anura Kumara Dissanayake. He has also previously served as the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka for a record six times. He is the chief of the United National Party, the oldest political party of Sri Lanka.
