The Attorney General has instructed the Criminal Investigation Department to name MP Namal Rajapaksa as a suspect in the Airbus bribery case now before the Colombo Fort Magistrate’s Court, Hiru News reported.

That case concerns former SriLankan Airlines Chief Executive Kapila Chandrasena and his wife over alleged bribery in the airline’s procurement of aircraft. According to Hiru, the Attorney General issued the directive after investigations indicated that Chandrasena, the primary suspect, had passed a portion of the bribe money to Rajapaksa.

The CID is to file a motion to recall the case, place the new evidence before the Fort Magistrate and ask for an order formally naming Rajapaksa as a suspect.

A second file, not the one he is remanded on

The distinction matters. Rajapaksa is already in remand custody on a separate proceeding: the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption arrested him on 4 September and Colombo Chief Magistrate Asanga Bodaragama remanded him until 18 September. That is a CIABOC matter in a different court.

What the Attorney General has now directed is that the MP also be brought into the older CID file against Chandrasena in the Fort Magistrate’s Court. No date has been reported for when the motion will be filed or called.

A discrepancy on the figure

Hiru describes the CIABOC allegation as a “10-million-rupee bribe” received on multiple occasions in 2014 and 2015. Every other account of the same allegation puts it an order of magnitude higher.

Deputy Solicitor General Janaka Bandara told the Chief Magistrate’s Court on 4 September that the sum was Rs. 100 million — the rupee equivalent of US$800,000 routed through Singapore accounts — and Deputy Minister Ruwan Senarath repeated the Rs. 100 million figure on 7 September. Readers should treat Rs. 100 million as the figure on the court record.

Hiru’s account of the money’s route also differs from what was said in court. Hiru has Chandrasena handing part of the bribe to Rajapaksa directly; the CIABOC submissions described the funds reaching businessman Nimal Perera first, on whose affidavit the arrest was based.

Neither Daily Mirror nor NewsFirst had filed the story at the time of writing, and Ada Derana was unreachable. Rajapaksa denies wrongdoing.