Colombo: The Special High Court on Monday imposed a travel ban on Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, the younger brother of former Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa, and six others in a case of corruption.
The case set October 9 as the next date of hearing. While ordering the ban to travel overseas, the court granted bail to Gotabhaya, a former defence secretary, and the six others on a cash bond of Rs 100,000 and two personal bonds of Rs 1 million each.
The seven were indicted in a case of alleged misuse of state funds to build the DA Rajapaksha Memorial Museum. The suspects are alleged to have misused state funds worth Rs 90 million to build the museum and memorial in Medamulana in Hambantota district Mahinda Rajapaksa had earlier slammed the special court procedure as vendetta against his family.
Since his defeat to the incumbent Maithripala Sirisena in 2015, many members of the Rajapaksa family and their close associates have been tried in corruption cases.
Speculations are rife in the local media that Gotabhaya, a US citizen, is planning to contest the next presidential election in the island nation in 2020 by renouncing his American citizenship. (PTI)
