Former CEO of SriLankan Airlines found dead, days after securing bail in corruption case

Colombo: Former CEO of SriLankan Airlines Kapila Chandrasena was found dead at his home in suspicious circumstances on Friday, days after he secured bail in a corruption case, police said.

Chandrasena was granted bail on Tuesday after he was remanded in March in the case where he was charged for taking a kickback on the purchase of aircraft for the national carrier.

Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) F U Wootler said that his body was discovered at his home. According to the police spokesman, he died of hanging, Daily Mirror newspaper reported.

The development comes a day after Colombo Chief Magistrate Asanga S Bodaragama issued a warrant for Chandrasena’s arrest over allegations that the bail conditions imposed by the court had been violated.

Prosecutors on Tuesday told the Colombo Chief Magistrate’s Court that SriLankan Airlines' former CEO Kapila Chandrasena, the chief accused in the case, admitted to giving LKR 60 million in bribes to former president Mahinda Rajapaksa.

Chandrasena said Rajapaksa was given LKR 20 million three times at his home in the rural south in 2015 during his presidency.

However, his lawyers argued that he had filed an affidavit in the court saying that his statement was recorded under duress.

Priyankara Jayarathna, the aviation minister during Rajapaksa's tenure, was also alleged to have received a share of the bribe in the purchase of six Airbus aircraft in 2014 and seven Airbus aircraft in 2017.

Chandrasena, who was the CEO of the national carrier between 2011 and 2015, allegedly received a kickback from Airbus, and money had been credited to his wife’s account.

Both were arrested in 2019 and have been out on bail since.

The anti-graft commission revived the case after the new anti-corruption laws were enacted in 2024.

The incumbent National People's Power (NPP) government, led by President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, in the run-up to the 2024 elections, pledged to clean public life by prosecuting the highest in the land.