New Delhi, 24 Aug

Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Sunday expressed concern over the arrest of former Sri Lankan president Ranil Wickremesinghe and called upon the island nation's government to abjure the politics of vengeance and treat their former president with respect and dignity.

Wickremesinghe was on Saturday shifted to the Colombo National Hospital’s ICU, a day after he was arrested and refused bail over alleged misuse of state funds during his tenure.

Wickremesinghe, 76, was taken to the main Magazine Remand prison close to midnight on Friday after the Colombo Fort magistrate's court remanded him till 26 August.

In a post on X, Tharoor said, "Concerned about the detention of former Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickramasinghe on, what on the face of it, seem trivial charges".

"His health issues have already seen him taken to the prison hospital. I call on the government of Sri Lanka -- while fully respecting that this is their internal matter -- to abjure the politics of vengeance and treat their former President with the respect and dignity that he deserves, after his decades of service to the nation," the Congress leader said.

Wickremesinghe was admitted to the prison hospital on Saturday as his blood sugar and blood pressure levels were high, prison spokesman Jagath Weerasinghe said.

The former president was arrested at the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) headquarters on Friday, where he was summoned to record a statement in connection with an investigation into the alleged misuse of government funds amounting to Sri Lankan rupees 16.6 million.

The veteran Opposition leader was subsequently brought before the Colombo Fort magistrate's court.

The CID charged him under Section 386 and 388 of the penal code and under Section 5(1) of the Public Properties Act. The charges carry a punishment of not less than one year but not exceeding 20 years in jail.

After a lengthy session which lasted over six hours, Magistrate Nilupuli Lankapura remanded him while ruling that the defence lawyers had failed to submit any special matters that would have been possible for the court to grant bail to the former president.

Wickremesinghe, who served as president from 2022 to 2024, has been accused of using state funds to travel to England to attend a convocation ceremony of his wife, Prof Maithree, in September 2023.

It has been alleged that Wickremesinghe was returning from the US after an official engagement and visited the UK at the state's expense to attend the private engagement of his wife.

The CID had previously questioned his staff about the travel expenses.