The Colombo High Court has ordered that the case against ten accused over the Central Bank bond scam, including former Central Bank Governor Arjuna Mahendran, be recalled on 24 November for a pre-trial conference.
The case was taken up on Wednesday before the Permanent Trial-at-Bar comprising Judges Priyantha Liyanage, Viraj Weerasuriya and Tilakaratne Bandara, NewsFirst reported.
Mahendran, the first accused, was not present. Neither was the sixth accused.
Who did appear
Those before court included Perpetual Treasuries Limited; its directors Geoffrey Aloysius and Arjun Aloysius; the company’s Chief Executive Officer Kasun Palisena; and Pushya Mithra Gunawarden, Chitta Ranjan Hulugalle, Muthuraja Surendran and Saman Kumara.
The Attorney General has filed the case under 23 indictments. These include the allegation that the bond auction held on 27 February 2015 caused a loss of Rs. 688 million to the State.
Mahendran’s absence is structural, not incidental
The first accused’s non-appearance is the central obstacle in this prosecution rather than a scheduling problem. Mahendran has remained outside Sri Lanka throughout, and the state’s difficulty in producing him has been documented repeatedly: as recently as late August, the government was still confronting a legal barrier to his extradition.
The Supreme Court has previously addressed the prosecution of Mahendran and former Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake in the same matter.
A pre-trial conference is a procedural stage for narrowing issues before trial. Setting one for 24 November places the next substantive step more than ten weeks away, and NewsFirst does not report whether the court addressed how the case proceeds if Mahendran remains absent on that date.
Not reported
NewsFirst does not name the sixth accused or give a reason for either absence. It does not say whether the court issued any order regarding Mahendran, whether the defence or the Attorney General’s Department made submissions, or why the case was recalled rather than progressed. The report does not itemise the 23 indictments beyond the February 2015 auction allegation, and does not state the total quantum alleged across all counts.
No other verified newsroom had filed on Wednesday’s hearing at the time of publication. Ada Derana’s site returned a CloudFront block on every attempt during this cycle and could not be checked.
