The Bribery Commission has arrested the President’s Chief of Staff Dr I.H.K. Mahanama and the Chairman of the State Timber Corporation (STC) P. Dissanayake while accepting a bribe of Rs 20 million. 

According to reports, they were taken into custody by officers of the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption while soliciting the bribe at a prominent luxury hotel in Colombo. 

Sarath Jayamanna, the director general of CIABOC told Reuters, that the officials were recording statements from Mahanama and Dissanayake, and later on Thursday or early on Friday the two individuals would be produced before the courts.

He said Mahanama, the former secretary of the lands ministry, had asked for a bribe of Rs 540 million from an Indian investor interested in acquiring a state-owned sugar factory.

The two were arrested at a car park of a luxury hotel in the capital Colombo while they were accepting a 20 million rupees bribe from the investor for the transfer of land, he said.

The President’s office said in a statement the service of both the officials had been suspended, and the president had instructed the CIABOC officials to enforce the law strictly against the two without any obstruction.

Dr I.H.K. Mahanama is the former Secretary to the Ministry of Lands who was recently appointed to the influential position of the President’s Chief of Staff.