The Divisional Secretary and the canteen official of the Siyambalanduwa Divisional Secretariat who were arrested by Bribery Commission officials for allegedly soliciting bribes were remanded by Acting Moneragala Magistrate D. G. Karunasena.
Bribery Commission officials arrested the two following a complaint lodged by a resident identified as Ibra Lebbe Farooq.
According to the complainant the Divisional Secretary J. M. Upali Kithsiri Jayasekera had requested a sum of Rs. 100,000 from him when he had wanted to remove some timber he had purchased from five plots of land in Siyambalanduwa. The complainant had paid Rs. 13,000 in cash and the rest, Rs. 87,000, by cheque. However, as the cheque had been defaced, the Divisional Secretary had informed the complainant that till that money was paid he would not be issued the licence to transport the timber.
The resident had then complained to Bribery Commission officials and last Friday, these officials had accompanied the complainant to the Divisional Secretariat.
The complainant had met the Divisional Secretary who had told that the money be handed over to an official at the canteen. He had then called the official and told him to count the money and accept it. The complainant had then paid the money to the canteen official when Bribery Commission officials intervened.
The two suspects were then arrested and after recording their statements, they were produced before the Moneragala Magistrate who remanded them till November 27. | 
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