Man remanded for forging President’s signature

A 37-year-old man from Kurunegala, who was arrested for allegedly forging the signature of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa on some documents, was today ordered to be remanded till June 8 by the Colombo Fort Magistrate’s Court.

A complaint was initially made to the Colombo Fraud Investigation Bureau in this regard. Later, it was transferred to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) for further investigations.

The CID informed Colombo Fort Magistrate Ranga Dissanayake that a complaint was made by an employee attached to the Central Bank about an individual who used the President’s signature and the letterhead in a forged manner to prepare some fake letters.

In the complaint, it was mentioned that the letter was prepared under the title of ‘reinstating a worker attached to the Central Bank’ and the suspect had used the President’s signature in the said letter.

The letter was received by the Governor of Central Bank on or around May 28, 2020.

However, due to some suspicious situations, employees of the Central Bank had complained to the Colombo Fraud Investigations Bureau on June 6 and the person was arrested on the same day.

The CID informed the Magistrate that they had found in the suspect's home a laptop and a pen drive used to prepare this forged document. (Yoshitha Perera)