Colombo Fort Magistrate Pasan Amarasena today ordered Sugeeshwara Bandara remanded until September 23, Hiru News reported.
Bandara, leader of the Nava Janatha Peramuna and a former private secretary to ex-President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, was remanded again because exceptional facts justifying bail were not placed before the court. The order followed submissions by the Central Crimes Investigation Bureau, which told the court that investigations arising from a complaint it received are continuing.
The allegation
Bandara was arrested by the CCIB in June over allegations that he drew salaries for two posts under the President’s expenditure head — serving as a secretary to Gotabaya Rajapaksa in 2022 while also holding a Project Director post at the Presidential Secretariat during Ranil Wickremesinghe’s tenure. Investigators have previously told court that about Rs. 6.19 million was involved.
Twelve weeks in custody
Today’s order extends a sequence running since 18 June — 83 days in remand, with the next date taking it past three months. Bail has been refused repeatedly; his fourth application was rejected in August, when counsel told the court he was a heart patient with damaged arteries and was also suffering from blood poisoning.
His health has recurred throughout the case. He was admitted to the prison hospital on 21 August after a blood vessel in his leg burst, a consequence of a varicose veins condition. Magistrate Pasan Amarasena had earlier declined a defence motion seeking an order directing the Commissioner General of Prisons to refer him for urgent treatment, holding that he had no legal authority over the internal administration of a remand prison and directing that the request go to the Commissioner General instead.
Neither report says whether his medical condition was raised again, nor whether a fresh bail application was made.
Update, September 9 — NewsFirst corroborates
NewsFirst filed its own account of the hearing at 5:50 p.m., after this article first published, and it matches the Hiru report on every material fact: Fort Magistrate Pasan Amarasena, the September 23 date, the Central Crimes Investigation Bureau as the arresting agency, and the finding that no exceptional circumstances were presented to justify bail.
NewsFirst describes the allegation as the receipt of salary payments for two positions under the Presidential Expenditure Head — the same double-salary allegation, stated in the terms of the government accounting head rather than by post.
Sourcing note
Ada Derana returned a CloudFront block domain-wide throughout this cycle, and the Daily Mirror’s latest-news listing did not carry the item.
