Ravi, six others present in Court yesterday

Pics by Damith Wickremasinghe

•  Ajahn Punchihewa and Central Bank’s former governor Arjuna Mahendran were not present in Court yesterday

By Yoshitha Perera 

Former finance minister Ravi Karunanayake, Arjun Aloysius and five others appeared in the Colombo Fort Magistrate’s Court yesterday following an order by the Court of Appeal that they be present in Court before 4.00 p.m. in connection with their writ application. 

  However, after the petitioners appeared in Court, Colombo Fort Magistrate Ranga Dissanayake said the Magistrate’s Court could not issue any orders against the seven petitioners, who were earlier named as suspects in the Central Bank bond scam case until the Court of Appeal concluded its proceedings on this matter.   

Those present in Court were Ravi Karunanayake, Arjun Aloysius, Kasun Palisena, Geoffrey Joseph Aloysius, Ranjan Hulugalla, Sangarapillai Pathumanapan and Indika Saman Kumara.   
The CID had arrested the eighth suspect Mutturaja Surendran, a director of the Perpetual Treasuries Ltd., and was ordered to be remanded till March 18 by Colombo Additional Magistrate Priyantha Liyanage.   

Meanwhile, Ajahn Punchihewa and Central Bank’s former governor Arjuna Mahendran were not present in Court yesterday.   

Earlier, Colombo Fort Magistrate Ranga Dissanayake had issued warrants for the arrests of Ravi Karunanayake, Arjuna Mahendran, Arjun Aloysius and seven others in the Central Bank bond scam.  

However, they had filed writ petitions in the Court of Appeal seeking an interim order staying their arrest.