[8] His paternal grandfather Don Alwin Rajapaksa was a member of parliament and Minister of Agriculture and Land in Wijeyananda Dahanayake's government.

[17][18] In December 2010, several media sources reported that Rajapaksa had allegedly received preferential treatment during his final examination at Sri Lanka Law College.

[20] Media and NGO sources reports that Jayarathna's complaints were largely ignored or rejected,[22] although he appeared before the college authorities early in January 2011.

"[19] Rajapaksa was sworn in as an attorney at law on 15 December 2011 in front of a panel of Supreme Court judges including Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayake.

[33][34] Rajapaksa was often seen at state events and was chief guest at several ceremonies inaugurating new roads, bridges, schools and other government buildings.

[4][9] Although Rajapaksa held no government position at the time, he made numerous official foreign trips, sometimes accompanying his father.

[46] Namal Rajapaksa was accused of being involved in the death of Wasim Thajudeen, a Sri Lankan rugby union player who played for Havelock Sports Club and the national team.

Thajudeen was killed in a car crash on 17 May 2012 which was initially pronounced to be an accident but was later reopened as a murder investigation in 2015 following allegations by the victims family.

[54] It has been alleged that CSN was favoured by the Rajapaksa regime which awarded it the exclusive broadcast rights of several sports fixtures including cricket.

[56] The Rajapaksa government headed by Namal's father had transferred the sports broadcast rights to CSN by a cabinet decision with no open tender or any known competitive bidding process.

[57] After Rajapaksa's defeat in the January 2015 presidential election the new government of President Maithripala Sirisena launched a probe into the rights deal.

[58] Namal Rajapaksa is being investigated for money laundering after a civil group named Voice Against Corruption lodged a complaint against him to the FCID.

[59][60] In August 2016 an arrest warrant was issued through the Interpol on Oranella Iresha Silva who is a suspect in an inquiry conducted under the Money Laundering Act for purchasing Rs.

[61] The controversial air hostess named Nithya Senani Samaranayake of the SriLankan Airlines was also arrested and remanded in August 2016 for her role in NR Consultations and Gowers Corporation as a director.

She was released from the airline at the request of the then Secretary to the President Lalith Weeratunga to handle Namal Rajapaksa's "special projects" but continued to receive her basic salary as well as a "productivity allowance" in addition to other perks and promotions.

[69][70] Tharunyata Hetak receives significant funding from public bodies including the Bank of Ceylon and National Lotteries Board both of which were under the control of Rajapaksa's father.

This was in relation to the misuse of Rs 70 million that was given to him by an Indian real estate company in return for giving them premium land from the heart of Colombo CBD.