Parliamentarian Chamara Sampath Dassanayake, who was arrested by the Bribery Commission on corruption charges, was produced before the Colombo Chief Magistrate Thanuja Lakmali and remanded until April 1.
The court, which considered three legal cases against him today, granted bail on two of them. He has been ordered to remain in custody until the first of next month.
It has been alleged that while he was serving as the Chief Minister of Uva Province, money obtained from three state banks to provide school bags for preschool children was credited to his personal foundation account.
When he requested money from the third bank, the bank refused to provide the money. As a result, he has taken steps to withdraw the fixed deposits of the Uva Provincial Council from that bank. The Bribery Commission reported to the court that the government had suffered a loss of 1.73 million rupees as a result.