Sri Lankan Police questioned the country's former president Gotabaya Rajapaksa for hours at his private residence regarding the 17.85Mln Sri Lankan rupees ($48,938) seized at his official residence after he fled the country in July last year, according to media reports.
Police investigators on Monday "recorded a three-hour long statement from the former president Gotabaya Rajapaksa about the cash found in the president's house," police spokesman Nihal Thalduwa told foreign media.
The huge sum of money was found by the protestors who handed it over to the Colombo Fort police.
Later, the court ordered a statement to be recorded from the 73-year-old former president.
Rajapaksa fled Sri Lanka on 13 July 2022 and went to the Maldives, Singapore, and Thailand. But he returned to his homeland in September.
Rajapaksa and his family had enjoyed political dominance for the past two decades and were accused of financial wrongdoing between 2015 and 2019.
Since he became president in 2019 and enjoyed the immunity of office, no cases were filed against him.