The Colombo Magistrate Court today ordered to release on bail, the domestic aide of former Minister Keheliya Rambukwella, who was arrested by the Bribery Commission recently. 

The woman was arrested last week in connection with investigations into allegations that Rambukwella had appointed 15 individuals to his personal staff nominally and had received over Rs. 8 million in salaries and allowances.

When the case was taken up for hearing today, the Bribery Commission had informed that it was conducting further investigations into a bank account used by the woman, a resident of Embilipitiya.

Bribery Commission officials informed the court that although the suspect said that the bank account was opened for a sand mining business, an examination of the money transferred has revealed that no such business had been conducted. As such, they said further investigations are being conducted in this regard.

The lawyer representing the suspect informed the court that the suspect had used money from the bank account of the third suspect, Nishantha Basnayake, and that the money was not government money.

Taking into consideration the facts, the magistrate ordered the woman to be released on two sureties of Rs. one million each. 

The court, which banned her from travelling overseas, also issued an order requiring her to surrender her passport to the court.

The magistrate then ordered the case to be called again on 10 October 2025. 

Meanwhile, a family member of the woman implicated in the case told Newswire that the Bribery Commission has wrongfully identified the woman as a domestic aide of Keheliya Rambukwella. 

The family member said that the woman in question was a graduate of the University of Colombo and is a software engineer.

He further revealed that the woman had worked as an intern at the Health Ministry during the tenure of Keheliya Rambukwella. (Newswire)

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A 59-year-old man has been sentenced to 12 years of rigorous imprisonment for sending an underaged girl as a domestic worker to Jordan. 

The accused is reported to have created a fake birth certificate and National Identity Card (NIC) for the minor, who was living with her grandmother. 

Issuing the judgement, Colombo High Court judge Nawaratne Marasinghe imposed a fine of Rs. 25,000 on the accused and also ordered him to pay a compensation of Rs. 300,000 to the victim.

The justice warned that failure to pay the compensation would result in an additional 1 ½ years of jail term. 

The judge pointed out that the aggrieved girl had been subjected to torture and abuse by the householders she worked for within two months of going abroad and had later returned to Sri Lanka in 2008.

The judge noted that if she had not returned, the girl could have suffered the same fate as Rizana Nafeek, who was executed in the Middle East.

This indictment against the accused, a father of three from Kalmunai, is being presented to the court after nine years following investigations conducted regarding the girl. (Newswire)

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Sri Lanka’s former Deputy High Commissioner to Australia has been ordered to pay a further $117,000 to a domestic worker she paid less than 90 cents a day for three years in Canberra.

Priyanka Danaratna came to Canberra in 2015 from Sri Lanka to work as a “domestic servant” for Deputy High Commissioner Himalee Arunatilaka, until she escaped in 2018.

She could not read or speak English, and had her passport confiscated by Ms Arunatilaka on arrival.

The Federal Court heard Ms Danaratna worked seven days a week from 6:00am to 10:00pm for roughly three years, only taking two days off over that time when she burned her hand cooking at the residence.

She would undertake “all the domestic tasks” for the Deputy High Commissioner, including cooking, cleaning and laundry, and would sometimes work until 1am when Ms Aruntilaka would host events.

“She gave me permission from time to time to go for a short walk around the neighbourhood.

“I was not allowed to go to the shops or do other activities outside the house by myself. Sometimes Ms Arunatilaka would take me to the shops if I wanted to buy something.”

Ms Danaratna was able to escape on one of her walks in the neighbourhood with the help of the Salvation Army, who picked her up and took her to a safe house in Sydney.

Worker yet to be paid court-ordered penalties

Justice Elizabeth Raper described the $11,212.70 Ms Danaratna received over her three years of work as a “paltry sum contained in the unlawful contractual bargain they had made”.

When Ms Danaratna began working in Australia, the national minimum wage for a 38-hour week was $656.90.

Her lawyer David Hilliard previously described the contract to the ABC as a “slavery-type arrangement”, which breached Australian employment laws for the low wage, the hours she worked, and the lack of entitlements like breaks, overtime and penalty rates.

In August, Ms Arunatilaka was ordered to pay her former employee $374,000 in unpaid wages by the Federal Court, plus another $169,000 in interest.

In a judgment handed down yesterday, the Federal Court imposed a further penalty on Ms Arunatilaka of $117,000 in order to deter similar behaviour from diplomats, and for the former Deputy High Commissioner’s lack of participation in the court process.

In August’s judgment, Justice Raper said Ms Arunatilaka had “never engaged” in the proceedings, filing no defence or submissions and not attending any hearings.

Justice Raper said yesterday Ms Arunatilaka is yet to pay any of the money.

Ms Arunatilaka has left Australia, and is now the Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the United Nations Office at Geneva.

The Sri Lankan High Commission has been contacted for comment. (ABC)

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A 59-year-old Sri Lankan domestic worker has died in Kuwait due to the reckless driving of a 21-year-old youth.

According to Kuwait-based aymanmatnews, the 21-year-old Kuwait citizen was detained at the Taima police station and charged with accidental killing.

Witnesses stated that the reckless driver was showing off with his pickup truck when he lost control of the steering wheel and the collision resulted in the woman’s death at the accident scene in the Al-Naeem area.

Aymanmatnews reported that a case has been registered over the incident. 

Meanwhile, Kuwait traffic police officers were also able to apprehend 18 juveniles driving vehicles without driver’s licences through patrols deployed in the Jahra Governorate. (NewsWire)

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