Forging President’s signature Suspect allegedly sought help from official at PM’s office: CID

By Yoshitha Perera 

The suspect who was arrested and remanded on the charges of forging the signature of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa had allegedly sought assistance from an individual attached to the Prime Minister’s office, CID informed the Colombo Fort Magistrate yesterday. 

When the case was taken up before Colombo Fort Magistrate Ranga Dissanayake, CID officials said they were continuing further investigations into the incident to determine the connection between the suspect and an official currently attached to the Prime Minister’s office. 

“The main suspect was identified as Prasanna Aruna Kumara who had been a former employee of the Bank of Ceylon (BOC). He had worked in the credit department and granted loans to various individuals using forged documents. When the bank found out this fraud, it had kicked him out,” the CID said.  

The suspect who was arrested on June 3 for allegedly forging the signature of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa on several documents was ordered to be remanded till June 8 by the Colombo Fort Magistrate. A complaint was initially made to the Colombo Fraud Investigation Bureau but later transferred to the CID. 

The CID said the complaint lodged by an employee of the Central Bank stated that the suspect had forged the President’s signature to prepare fraudulent letters. In the complaint, it was mentioned that a letter was prepared titled ‘Reinstating a worker attached to the Central Bank’ where the suspect had forged the President’s signature. The letter had been received by the Central Bank Governor on or around May 28. 

However, due to various suspicions, employees of the Central Bank had complained about the matter to the Colombo Fraud Investigations Bureau on June 6 and the suspect was arrested on the same day. 

The CID informed the magistrate that it found a laptop and pen drive from the suspect’s house which had been used to prepare forged documents. Accordingly, the magistrate ordered to further remand the suspect till June 17.