Wed Jan 29 09:47:29 UTC 2025: ## Rajapaksa Son Indicted in Sri Lanka for Misappropriation of Indian Investment

**Colombo, Sri Lanka –** Namal Rajapaksa, the elder son of former Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa, has been indicted by the High Court on charges of misappropriating funds from an Indian investment project. The 38-year-old, a former Sri Lanka international rugby player, was arrested in June 2016 for allegedly misusing 70 million Sri Lankan rupees from the Krish hotel project. The project, located in Colombo’s commercial district, was abandoned, leaving an unfinished and reportedly unsafe structure.

The case, stalled since 2016, was recently revived by the Anura Kumara Dissanayake-led National People’s Power (NPP) government. Namal Rajapaksa was questioned by police before the indictment, and subsequently took to X (formerly Twitter) to claim the government is engaged in a political witch hunt against the Rajapaksa family.

This indictment comes amid ongoing government scrutiny of the Rajapaksa family. Mahinda Rajapaksa himself is facing pressure to vacate his official residence and has challenged the government’s reduction of his security detail. The opposition argues that former presidents are entitled to certain benefits under the constitution. Namal Rajapaksa’s younger brother, Yoshitha, was also recently arrested in a related property case but has since been released on bail. The Krish hotel project’s unfinished state has also been the subject of separate court proceedings concerning public safety.

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