Five individuals including four officials of the Health Ministry’s Medical Supplies Division, who were arrested in relation with the alleged import of substandard human intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) have been ordered to be remanded further until December 13, 2023.

This order was issued by Maligakanda Magistrate’s Court today (29).

The Director of the Health Ministry’s Medical Supplies Division and three other high-ranking officials of the division as well as the owner of the relevant company which is said to have imported a batch of substandard Immunoglobulin vials by forging documents, were recently arrested and remanded over the incident.

Meanwhile on Friday (24), the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) had submitted a report pertaining to the investigations into the alleged incident to the Maligakanda Magistrate’s Court.

Against this backdrop, the CID also recorded statements from three officials of the Ministry of Finance including Finance Secretary Mahinda Siriwardana regarding the matter on Tuesday (28), as per the permission obtained from the Maligakanda Magistrate’s Court.

Accordingly, statements had been recorded at length from 7.00 a.m. to 5.00 p.m., from Finance Secretary Ministry Mahinda Siriwardana, Deputy Director of the Finance Ministry and the Deputy Director General (Development/Finance) of the ministry.