The Supreme Court (SC) has dismissed a Fundamental Rights (FR) petition filed by former Additional Secretary to the Ministry of Health Saman Rathnayake, seeking a ruling that his fundamental human rights were violated through the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) ‘unlawfully’ arresting and remanding him in custody over the substandard human intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) procurement case.

This order was issued when the relevant petition was taken up before a three-Judge SC bench comprising Justices E.A. Gamini R. Amarasekara, Kumuduni Wickremasinghe and Sobhitha Rajakaruna yesterday (4).

On 1 March of last year (2024), Rathnayake was arrested by the CID over the controversial procurement of substandard human IVIG vials. Prior to the apprehension of Rathnayake, several arrests had been made in connection with the drug procurement scam including the former Minister of Health Keheliya Rambukwella, former Health Ministry Secretary Janaka Sri Chandraguptha, the Director of the Health Ministry’s Medical Supplies Division and three other officials of the same Division, as well as the owner of the company which is said to have imported the batch of substandard IG vials by forging documents. 

In October 2023, the National Medicines Regulatory Authority (NMRA) revealed that forged documents were found to have been submitted for Customs clearance to procure a batch of vials containing human IG, an antibody produced by blood plasma cells, which later failed the quality tests. The product, which was said to have been manufactured by Livealth Biopharma Private Limited, India, was imported by a local medicine supplier called Isolez Biotech Pharma AG (Pvt.) Ltd. However, the India-based manufacturer has denied having a hand in this fraudulent activity and communicated to the NMRA that it has neither manufactured nor supplied nor exported these products to any party. Reportedly, funds to the tune of Rs. 144 million have been misappropriated through the unlawful procurement of 22,500 vials of IVIG.