Former Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake and eight others who were ordered to be remanded were directed to the quarantine centre at the Welikada Prison.

The Colombo Special High Court Trial-at-Bar ordered yesterday (17) that the suspects be remanded until 23 March, after they were charged with allegedly misappropriating Rs. 36.98 billion worth of Treasury bonds at the bond auction held on 29 and 31 March, 2016.

The case was taken up before a three-judge bench comprising Justices Damith Thotawatte, Manjula Tilakaratne and Mohamed Irshadeen yesterday.

Charge sheets were handed over to the accused and in addition to former Minister Ravi Karunanayake, Arjun Aloysius, the owner of Perpetual Treasury and its CEO Kasun Palisena were also ordered to be remanded.

In addition, directors Jeffrey Aloysius, Tissa Ranjan Hulugalle and Muthuraja Surendran, as well as Sangarapillai Padumanathan, an executive officer of the Central Bank's Public Debt Department, and Indika Saman Kumara, an employee of the Employees Provident Fund, were also remanded.

The Attorney General's Department informed the court on 21 Februry that the main accused in the Central Bank bond case, former Central Bank Governor Arjuna Mahendran, and Ajan Gardi, a group director of Perpetual Treasuries, are being extradited to Sri Lanka as per the Punchihewa court order