Sugeeshwara Bandara, former private secretary to ex-President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, was further remanded until October 7 when he was produced before Fort Magistrate Pasan Amarasena on Wednesday.
Investigators told the court the inquiry is continuing and that statements have yet to be recorded from a further 50 individuals in connection with the case, NewsFirst reported. The court ordered the extension after considering the facts they presented.
Bandara was arrested and remanded by the Central Crimes Investigation Bureau over the alleged receipt of salary payments for two positions under the Presidential Expenditure Head.
Ninety-seven days, and the witness list is still open
Wednesday’s order continues a sequence that began with his arrest by the CCIB on 18 June. He has now been in remand custody for 97 days; the new date takes it to 111.
The remand has been renewed at roughly fortnightly intervals throughout — to 30 July, to 25 August, and most recently to 23 September, when the court found no exceptional circumstances justifying bail.
The figure investigators gave on Wednesday is the notable one. Fifty outstanding statements, more than three months after the arrest, indicates an inquiry still some distance from completion rather than one being wrapped up.
The allegation
Investigators have previously told court the case concerns about Rs. 6.19 million, drawn as salaries for two posts under the President’s expenditure head — Bandara 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.
Bandara, who leads the Nava Janatha Peramuna, has had repeated health problems in custody. His fourth bail application was refused in August, when counsel told the court he was a heart patient with damaged arteries and was also suffering from blood poisoning. He was admitted to the prison hospital on 21 August after a blood vessel in his leg burst.
NewsFirst’s report does not say whether a fresh bail application was made on Wednesday, nor whether his medical condition was raised again.
Sourcing note
Ada Derana carried the hearing but remains blocked to this newsroom, returning a CloudFront block on both direct and reader-proxy fetches. Neither Daily Mirror’s breaking-news listing nor Hiru News carried the item at the time of writing, leaving NewsFirst as the only verified newsroom available for it.
