COLOMBO, Aug 31, 2026 (BSS/AFP) - Sri Lanka's former finance minister Ravi Karunanayake was arrested on Monday for allegedly using state funds to pay his private employees, the country's main anti-corruption body said.

The former cabinet minister was taken into custody by the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption (CIABOC) following a lengthy interrogation.

"The former minister was behind the payment of salaries to three people from the National Lotteries Board, but they did private work for him," a CIABOC official told AFP, requesting anonymity.

The arrest of Karunanayake, a member of former president Ranil Wickremesinghe's administration, comes amid a widespread crackdown on corruption by President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, who took office in 2024.

Another ex-minister, Keheliya Rambukwella, was arrested earlier this month for allegedly aiding the theft of a centuries-old sacred rock from the palace of the island's last Sinhala king.

Rambukwella was health minister when Sri Lanka faced an acute shortage of medicines after defaulting on its $46 billion foreign debt in April 2022.

All the immediate family members of former president Mahinda Rajapaksa are also facing investigation or prosecution over money laundering, bribery and murder.

The Rajapaksas have denied all allegations.