Sleepless in Remand: Shaindara’s Breathless Nights Behind Bars

The Rajapaksa family drama has a new twist — and this time it isn’t about power, but about pillows, pressure machines, and sleepless nights.

In a Colombo courtroom, lawyers for former State Minister Shasheendra “Shaindara” Rajapaksa painted a grim bedtime story: the once-powerful politician is now a prisoner of his own breath. They claimed he suffers from severe sleep apnea, gasping for air up to 35 times an hour, unable to find rest without a special machine. Without it, they warned, his health has deteriorated — high blood pressure, hospitalization, and a body begging for bail.

But prosecutors weren’t buying the bedtime tears. They snapped back that Shaindara had already survived a full month in remand without his breathing gadget. If he can endure that, they argued, he can count the nights until September 19, when the bail ruling is due.

The corruption case itself is no lullaby. Investigators allege Shaindara pressured Mahaweli Authority officials to inflate compensation for a now-demolished building in Sewanagala. The tab? A cool 8.85 million rupees — public money, they claim, that was manipulated before angry protestors reduced the building to rubble.

Chief Magistrate Asanka Bodaragama didn’t blink. He ordered Shaindara to tough it out in custody until the 19th, promising a final ruling then.

So until that date, the man once surrounded by the comforts of ministerial life is left to fight the night — not against political rivals, but against his own lungs.

As one courtroom wag whispered: “From the corridors of power to counting gasps per hour — that’s the real fall from grace.”