Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s former Secretary Lalith Weeratunga and former Director General of the Telecommunications Regulations Commission (TRC) Anusha Palpita, who were found guilty in the ‘sil redi’ case yesterday, were just admitted to the Prison Hospital.

Weeratunga and Palpita were sentenced to three years Rigorous Imprisonment (RI), ordered to pay a Rs. 2 million fine each as well as to pay Rs. 50 million each to the TRC.

Colombo High Court Judge Gihan Kulatunga said Lalith Weeratunga and Anusha Palpita had been found guilty ‘beyond reasonable doubt’ on two counts in the case that saw the misappropriation of Rs. 600 million during the 2015 Presidential Election.

Rs. 600 million belonging to the TRC was misappropriated in the run up to the 2015 Presidential Election between October 2014 and January 2015 and used to distribute ‘sil redi’ – fabric used by devotees to observe sil – to potential voters.