A departmental inquiry committee has been appointed to investigate the incident involving a misplaced stock of school textbooks, Deputy Minister of Education Madhura Senewiratne said.
He added that police investigations are also underway in connection with the matter.
According to police findings, after the textbooks were handed over for transport, the first suspect sold the consignment to a location in Alawwa.
The owner of that establishment then resold the stock to a center in Narammala, from where it was later moved to Wattala.
The Department of Educational Publications had originally handed over the textbooks on May 24 for distribution to schools in the Eastern Province.
The consignment comprised Tamil language activity books and Grade One textbooks for the third term, valued at more than Rs. 800,000.
Police confirmed that five suspects have been arrested in connection with the incident and have been remanded until August 25 pending further investigations. (Newswire)