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Former SriLankan Airlines CEO Kapila Chandrasena and his wife Priyanka Niyomali Wijenayaka after receiving bail yesterday
By Chandani Kirinde
Former SriLankan Airlines (SLA) CEO Kapila Chandrasena and his wife Priyanka Niyomali Wijenayaka, who were in remand custody, were released on cash bail of Rs. 2 million and sureties of Rs. 20 million each by Colombo Fort Magistrate Ranga Dissanayake yesterday.
The Magistrate allowed bail for the couple after counsel for Chandrasena and Wijenayake argued that their release from remand custody would not in any way hinder ongoing police investigations. Chandrasena and Wijenaike are facing money laundering charges in connection with a bribe/commission of $ 2 million, which they allegedly accepted from French plane maker Airbus, as part of the deal with SriLankan Airlines to purchase 10 aircraft under a re-fleeting program in 2013, during Chandrasena’s tenure as CEO.
The sureties for the first Accused Chandrasena were Saman Dissanayake and Perumal Ganesh, while the sureties for the second Accused Wijenayaka were Aravinda De Silva and Anushka Wijenayaka.
The Magistrate ordered the couple, who are under a travel ban, to hand over their passports to the Court register, and report to Police in the last week of each month. They were directed to appear before the CID on Friday for further questioning.
Deputy Solicitor General (DSG) Thusith Mudalige, who appeared for the prosecution, informed the court that the CID has recorded a statement from Nimal Hemasiri Perera, after police investigations revealed that $ 800,000 had gone into an account of Sabre Vision, a company registered under Perera’s name. The money had been transferred from the account of Biz Solutions, a company registered in the name of Niyomali Wijenayaka, of which company she is the sole shareholder and director. Both Biz Solutions and Saber Vision hold accounts in Standard Chartered Bank in Singapore, Mudalige told Court.
Nimal Perera, against who the court imposed a travel ban last week, told investigators that Saber Vision is owed by him, but that he was unaware of $ 800,000 being deposited in its account, and had requested permission to travel to Singapore to examine the account. DSG Mudalige said that this was not permissible, given that he was under investigation. DSG Mudalige also informed Court that the Police had recorded statements from two directors of SL Agro, into the account of which around Euros 140,000 (around Rs 17 million) had been transferred from Biz Solutions. They had told the CID they had no connection to Biz Solutions, and that the money had been deposited in their company account on the request of a close acquaintance named Yohan Abeyratne, who had subsequently passed away of a heart attack at the age of 27 last year. The court was also informed that investigations are underway to trace a person in whose name cheques had been written from the S.L. Agro account.
Investigative material submitted by the CID to the Attorney General’s Department revealed that $ 2 million (around Rs. 363 million) was deposited in the Standard Chartered bank account maintained in the name of Biz Solutions in Singapore by European Aeronautic Defense and Space Company (EADS) N.V., the parent company of Airbus SAS, in December 2013. Some of the money was subsequently transferred to an account held in Chandrasena’s name in Australia, and the account in Singapore closed in 2015.
Both Chandrasena and Wijenayaka have denied knowledge of the existence of the bank accounts as well as the $ 2 million payment from Airbus in the statements given to the CID.
Anuja Premaratne PC appeared for the first Accused, while Nalin Ladduwahetty PC appeared for the second Accused.
