Sri Lanka’s former Health Ministry Secretary Janaka Chandraguptha has been arrested over the case filed on the importation of substandard stocks of Immune Globulin vaccines.
Janaka Chandraguptha was arrested by the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) today (Dec 18).
The arrest comes after the CID commenced an investigation into allegations that a pharmaceutical company had imported 22,500 vials of substandard Immune Globulin vaccines.
It was revealed that the importation had been carried out by creating forged documents with the assistance of the two senior state officials and that financial fraud of Rs. 130 million had occurred via the imports of the said substandard medicine.
The suspects involved in the fraudulent importation were Sudath Janaka Fernando alias ‘Aruna Deepthi’ who owns the pharmaceutical company, the Chief Executive Officer of the National Medicines Regulatory Authority (NMRA) Dr. Vijith Gunasekera, and the Director of Supply at the Ministry of Health Dr. Kapila Wickramanayake.
The suspects were arrested by the CID following investigations launched into the matter, with the arrest of the former Health Ministry Secretary Janaka Chandraguptha being the latest apprehension related to the case. (NewsWire)
