COLOMBO: A Sri Lankan courtroom remanded a senior cupboard minister in custody Saturday over the buy of faux medicines for state hospitals when he was accountable for the well being portfolio.
Former well being minister Keheliya Rambukwella was ordered to be held till February 15 pending investigations right into a 144 million rupee ($465,000) rip-off involving what had been meant to be life-saving medicine.
Police instructed the courtroom in Colombo the well being ministry had meant to purchase a inventory of the antibody immunoglobulin, which is used on immune-compromised sufferers.
What the ministry paid for turned out to be largely water.
“The drug had been issued to hospitals between July and September when sufferers reported adversarial reactions triggering high quality checks,” an investigator instructed AFP.
It was not clear if there have been deaths related to the usage of the pretend treatment.
The Legal Investigations Division started questioning Rambukwella on Friday and took him earlier than Colombo’s Maligakanda Justice of the Peace Court docket, the place the decide ordered his detention.
A number of different key well being ministry officers have already been arrested. Rambukwella is at the moment the atmosphere minister.
The provider, an area firm, was to be paid 960 million rupees ($3.1 million) however the funds had been stopped after the standard considerations arose in September.
The proprietor of the corporate can be in custody.
Sri Lanka confronted an acute scarcity of medicines after the nation defaulted on its $46 billion international debt in April 2022 after declaring chapter.
Most important medicines had been later financed by a credit score line from neighbouring India, in addition to the World Financial institution.
Former well being minister Keheliya Rambukwella was ordered to be held till February 15 pending investigations right into a 144 million rupee ($465,000) rip-off involving what had been meant to be life-saving medicine.
Police instructed the courtroom in Colombo the well being ministry had meant to purchase a inventory of the antibody immunoglobulin, which is used on immune-compromised sufferers.
What the ministry paid for turned out to be largely water.
“The drug had been issued to hospitals between July and September when sufferers reported adversarial reactions triggering high quality checks,” an investigator instructed AFP.
It was not clear if there have been deaths related to the usage of the pretend treatment.
The Legal Investigations Division started questioning Rambukwella on Friday and took him earlier than Colombo’s Maligakanda Justice of the Peace Court docket, the place the decide ordered his detention.
A number of different key well being ministry officers have already been arrested. Rambukwella is at the moment the atmosphere minister.
The provider, an area firm, was to be paid 960 million rupees ($3.1 million) however the funds had been stopped after the standard considerations arose in September.
The proprietor of the corporate can be in custody.
Sri Lanka confronted an acute scarcity of medicines after the nation defaulted on its $46 billion international debt in April 2022 after declaring chapter.
Most important medicines had been later financed by a credit score line from neighbouring India, in addition to the World Financial institution.
