COLOMBO -- Sri Lanka's drive to combat rampant corruption and the culture of impunity, hallmarks of its entrenched political elites, has put the once formidable Rajapaksa political dynasty in the dock, as members of the former first family, who dominated the South Asian nation for nearly two decades, face a clutch of alleged graft cases.

The cases involving two sons and the wife of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, the nationalist patriarch of the dynasty, will also serve as a political litmus test for the left-leaning government of incumbent President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, whose two-year administration has stuck to its election-winning anti-corruption pledges in the face of some pushback from the parliamentary opposition.

Namal Rajapaksa, an opposition lawmaker and Mahinda's eldest son, was arrested last month and remains in remand over a corruption case linked to an alleged aircraft procurement deal made during the presidency of his father, whose twin terms from 2005 to 2015 were marked by the patriarch's iron grip across the country.

His younger brother Yositha Rajapaksa was also arrested earlier this year over alleged corruption involving his role in the navy. And between the two arrests, Shiranthi Rajapaksa, Mahinda's wife and mother of Namal and Yositha, was hauled up by the country's anti-corruption authority over having allegedly milked donations meant for a children's hospital.

"There was a culture where being a minister meant you got a license to steal," Dissanayake has repeatedly said at political rallies in Sri Lanka's rural heartland, swiping at the establishment adversaries he has defeated despite being a political outsider.

Police and anti-corruption officers escort Shiranthi Rajapaksa, wife of Mahinda Rajapaksa, to court in Colombo on Oct. 7.

"These people were so strong that when the law approached them it would melt, unlike [for] the smaller people, who were arrested for stealing a coconut." In mid-October, Dissanayake's National People's Power party, which enjoys a two-thirds majority in parliament, told lawmakers that 50 high-profile cases of corruption, fraud and crimes -- many from charges made during previous administrations -- were being revived. The cases involved seven members of the Rajapaksa family.

But members of Rajapaksa's political party, Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna, are pushing back, describing the cases as "witch hunts" in their defense. "The government sees us as a political threat. That is why they are reviving the cases against Namal and Shiranthi," Sagara Kariyawasam, senior lawyer and general secretary of the SLPP, told Nikkei Asia.

"For these cases, they have started fabricating evidence against the Rajapaksas." Gotabaya Rajapaksa, Mahinda's younger brother, was the country's president in 2022, when the country faced a financial meltdown; the government ran out of U.S. dollar reserves and declared bankruptcy for the first time. Gotabaya is also facing legal troubles over human rights violations.

Police officers investigate a bedroom at the president's official residence in Colombo on July 15, 2022.

Others have also raised red flags at the anti-corruption drive. "The government is weaponizing the rule of law, and doing so through its anti-corruption narrative," said Shiral Lakthilaka, a senior lawyer and adviser to former President Maithripala Sirisena, at a seminar discussion in Colombo this month. "There is a noble pretext in the cases against the Rajapaksas." Yet, seasoned observers believe that the cases against the Rajapaksas are resonating with the public, who voted Dissanayake and his NPP into power at twin elections in 2024 to end the scourge of high-level corruption and impunity, which are blamed for the country's economic collapse in 2022. Widespread anti-government protests that year forced the collapse of the Gotabaya regime.

"People have realized since then, even in the villages, that elite corruption is linked to Sri Lanka's economic collapse," said Ramesh Ramasamy, senior lecturer in political science at the University of Peradeniya, in central Sri Lanka. "The president and the NPP have capitalized on this to enforce anti-corruption measures to sustain their political support." A man stands in a swimming pool as people enter the President's House in Colombo after then-President Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled amid the country's economic crisis, on July 10, 2022.

This shift to tackle graft has earned the Dissanayake administration early windfalls. In the latest global perception index published by Transparency International, the international graft watchdog, Sri Lanka climbed 14 places, from 121st in 2024 to 107th in 2025, indicating an improvement in tackling corruption. The country also secured an improved grade in the same index for better public sector integrity.

The International Monetary Fund, which came to Sri Lanka's rescue with a bailout package after the economic crash, urged anti-corruption reforms as part of its blueprint for macroeconomic stability. Consequently, Sri Lanka became the first Asian country to implement the Fund's Governance Diagnostic Assessment to strengthen public-sector transparency.

According to analysts, for the Dissanayake administration to earn more kudos from cleaning up rampant graft, the ultimate test will be within its own ranks. "For the NPP to achieve a sustained cultural shift, it will have to scrutinize any of its own corrupt political leaders," said Alan Keenan, senior consultant on Sri Lanka for the International Crisis Group, a Brussels-based conflict-resolution think tank.

"Going after the Rajapaksas is necessary, but not sufficient in the anti-corruption push."