Death of Kapila Chandrasena: Did Police Delay Bury a Rs 270 Million Airbus Bribery Trail Linked to the Rajapaksa Family?
By Our Political Correspondent
The sudden and suspicious death of former SriLankan Airlines chief executive Kapila Chandrasena has reignited troubling questions over one of Sri Lanka’s most controversial corruption scandals — the Airbus procurement affair that has long hovered over the political establishment and figures connected to the Rajapaksa family.
Police confirmed that Chandrasena was found dead under suspicious circumstances inside his residence at No. 37, Pedris Road, Kollupitiya. According to police spokesman Assistant Superintendent F.U. Wootler, the former airline executive was discovered hanging inside the house, and investigations into the circumstances surrounding the death are continuing.
Yet the timing of his death has triggered immediate scrutiny.
Chandrasena died only a day after the Colombo Chief Magistrate’s Court issued a fresh warrant for his arrest over alleged violations of bail conditions. Critics are now asking why police failed to act immediately after the court order was issued on May 7, 2026 — a delay that may have allowed the key accused in a multi-million-dollar corruption probe to evade further judicial questioning forever.
The court warrant had been issued after Colombo Chief Magistrate Asanga S. Bodaragama was informed that Chandrasena had breached bail conditions by presenting allegedly unsuitable sureties before court. The Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption (CIABOC) had sought the cancellation of his bail and requested that he be remanded until the conclusion of the trial.
Legal observers now question why the arrest was not executed on the same day the order was made. The unanswered delay has fuelled speculation that the death may effectively shut down critical avenues of inquiry into an alleged bribery network stretching into the upper echelons of Sri Lankan politics.
Public records and previous investigative reports had identified Chandrasena as being connected to the Rajapaksa family through marriage. That relationship drew renewed attention because of allegations made during the long-running Airbus investigation.
Chandrasena had been a central figure in the controversial 2013 Airbus aircraft procurement deal involving SriLankan Airlines. Prosecutors alleged that while serving as CEO of the national carrier, he participated in arrangements to secure Airbus aircraft purchases at inflated prices in exchange for substantial kickbacks.
According to allegations presented before court, Chandrasena received an advance payment of US$2 million as part of a larger bribery arrangement connected to the purchase of eight Airbus A350 aircraft in 2013. The overall value of the aircraft transaction exceeded US$2 billion.
He was further accused of conspiring to obtain US$16 million in bribes in connection with a US$2.3 billion aircraft acquisition involving ten aircraft for SriLankan Airlines. Prosecutors alleged that €1.45 million had been transferred into a Singapore bank account linked to a shell company allegedly established in Brunei under his wife’s name.
Chandrasena had earlier been arrested in February 2020 in a related but separate case before being released on bail.
One of the most politically explosive elements of the case emerged when investigators told court that Chandrasena had allegedly informed anti-corruption officials that a substantial portion of the commission payments had been distributed to members of the Rajapaksa political establishment. He later retracted the statement through an affidavit, claiming it had been made under duress.
Nevertheless, the allegations remained politically toxic.
According to material presented during proceedings, the total commission in question amounted to approximately Rs 270 million at the 2015 exchange rate. Investigators alleged that Chandrasena had stated Rs 60 million was paid to former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, while another Rs 20 million had allegedly been paid to former Civil Aviation Minister Priyankara Jayaratne.
Those accused have consistently denied wrongdoing.
Despite years of investigations, arrests, international scrutiny and sensational allegations, the prosecution of the Airbus bribery affair has moved at a glacial pace through Sri Lanka’s legal system. Critics say the case became emblematic of how politically sensitive corruption investigations lose momentum once they edge too close to powerful interests.
Now, with Chandrasena dead, there are growing fears that one of the most significant corruption investigations in Sri Lanka’s aviation history may lose a critical witness — and perhaps the last direct link to a financial trail that investigators had long struggled to unravel.
Police insist investigations into the death are continuing. But for many observers, the deeper question is no longer simply how Kapila Chandrasena died.
It is whether the truth surrounding the Airbus scandal may now die with him.