Sri Lankan police looking for Rajapaksa's brother for quizzing

Colombo, Mar 25: Sri Lankan police is looking for Basil Rajapaksa, the brother of former president Mahinda Rajapaksa, for questioning in a corruption probe. Basil is wanted in a probe about a fund under the Ministry of Economic Development, Assistant Superintendent of police Ruwan Gunasekera said.

Basil was the key advisor of Rajapaksa during his nine- year rule. After Rajapaksa's defeat in the January 8 election by current president Maithripala Sirisena, a number of anti- graft cases were registered against him and his family members.

Rajapaksa's younger brother, Gotabhaya Rajapaksa is also facing a probe for allegedly running "death squads" and ordering the murder of a high-profile newspaper editor, Lasantha Wickrematunga.

Basil along with his wife had departed for US immediately after the polls. Last week the government alleged that Basil was no longer in the US and was now residing in Vietnam.

Basil is looking for a country with which we do not have a transfer agreement so that he cannot be sent back to Sri Lanka, Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Ajith Perera said.

The government has stated that they will seek Interpol assistance to probe the former minister on corruption charges since he is out of the country.

PTI