Overview

• On May 29, the Colombo High Court convicted former sports minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage and ex-trade minister Nalin Fernando of causing a LKR 53 million loss through sports equipment purchases ahead of the 2015 presidential polls.
• Aluthgamage received a 20-year sentence and Fernando was handed 25 years of rigorous imprisonment for buying 14,000 carrom boards and 11,000 draught boards intended as voter inducements.
• The case was first filed in 2019 and withdrawn in 2022 over a technicality before being revived last year by President Anura Kumara Dissanayake’s National People’s Power administration.
• Prosecutors said the board games were distributed to sway voters in support of Mahinda Rajapaksa’s bid for re-election in 2015.
• Aluthgamage is also under investigation for authorising a US$6.09 million payment to a Chinese supplier for undelivered fertiliser, extending scrutiny of his tenure.