Basil Rajapaksa, Sri Lanka's former finance minister and the brother of President Gotabya Rajapaksa, has been admitted to a private hospital here, according to a media report on Friday. Basil, 71, is the youngest brother of President Rajapaksa and former prime minister Mahinda Rajapaksa. However, it is yet known why he was hospitalised, the Daily Mirror, an online newspaper reported.
In April too, Basil Rajapaksa was admitted to a private hospital in Colombo after contracting COVID-19.
Widely regarded as the intellectual pillar of the Rajapaksa family, Basil was the finance minister of Sri Lanka until April 4 when he was sacked by President Gotabaya as the country's economic crisis worsened.
Basil, a Sri Lankan-American, resigned from Parliament on June 9. He was accused of being partially responsible for the economic crisis in the country.
However, Basil denied that the economic crisis was not his making and that the country should have gone to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a bailout much earlier.