Three famous athletes have been arrested, produced in court and remanded for forging marriage certificates and obtaining visas for their fake partners to enter Britain, a local newspaper said on Monday.

The Daily Mirror said Prasanna Amerasekera, Sri Lanka's gold- medal winning 400-meter athlete alleged to have accepted 2.5 million rupees (about 23,000 U. S. dollars) to procure a visa for a Tamil woman to visit Britain as his wife after forging a marriage certificate.

Two other female athletes Lalana Shanthi, a relay runner, and Geethanandani Gallage, a race walker, have also been remanded for obtaining visas for two Muslim men whom they accepted as their husbands.

According to the Daily Mirror, the two women athletes are also alleged to have accepted 2.5 million rupees each from the two Muslim men while forging marriage certificates.

Amerasekera is a bachelor but Shanthi and Geethanandani are already married.

The newspaper said the three Sri Lankan athletes accepted the visa seekers as their spouses in order to procure the visas which the British High Commission in Colombo had no hesitation in issuing.

They face criminal charges of forging marriage certificates and accepting bribes to obtain visas to enter Britain, the newspaper said.