Sugeeshwara Bandara, former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s private secretary, has been further remanded until 11 November over an allegation that he drew salaries for two posts under the Presidential expenditure head.

Colombo Fort Magistrate Pasan Amarasena made the order on Wednesday after Bandara was produced before the court, Hiru News reported at 3.12 p.m. Colombo time. The magistrate issued it following submissions by the Central Crimes Investigation Bureau.

Hiru identifies Bandara as the leader of the New Janatha Front.

The allegation

The case concerns the receipt of salary payments for two separate positions under the Presidential expenditure head. The allegation is that in 2022, while serving as the former President’s private secretary, Bandara simultaneously functioned as a Project Director at the Presidential Secretariat and drew a salary for both posts from the same vote.

He was arrested by the Central Crimes Investigation Bureau on 18 June and has been in remand custody since.

A four-month pattern of fortnightly extensions

Wednesday’s order is the latest in a sequence of short remand extensions rather than a new development in the investigation. This desk has recorded the same hearing recurring through the year — he was remanded until 30 July in July, until 25 August in August, admitted to the prison hospital later that month, and remanded until 23 September in September.

The cadence has been roughly a fortnight at a time. On that pattern he will have been held for close to five months by the time the November date is reached, without the filings recording that charges have been framed.

On the date

Hiru’s Sinhala gives the return date as ලබන 11 — “the coming 11th” — which is 11 November, not a date in October. The same wording appears elsewhere on Hiru’s rail for the Kavantissa shooting suspects, whose remand the Mahawa Magistrate’s Court extended on the same day, and Hiru’s own English rendering there reads “November 11th”. The fortnightly pattern above points the same way.

Separately, the same magistrate sitting at Fort on the same day set 11 November as the sentencing date for former Minister Johnston Fernando in the luxury vehicle tax case. The two matters are unrelated.

Not reported

The filing does not say whether bail was applied for on Wednesday, or on what basis the further remand was sought and granted. It gives no figure for the salaries alleged to have been drawn, does not say over what period, and does not state what offence is alleged or under which statute.

It does not say whether charges have been filed, what stage the Central Crimes Investigation Bureau’s investigation has reached, or whether anyone else is a suspect. It does not report his current health, following his admission to the prison hospital in August.

Single-source. Neither the Daily Mirror, which carried earlier hearings in this case, nor NewsFirst had filed on Wednesday’s order at the time of writing — both rails were checked directly. Ada Derana has returned an HTTP 403 block to this desk for 48 consecutive days. The background on the 2022 dual role and the 18 June arrest is drawn from earlier reporting on the same case rather than from Wednesday’s filing.