A 74-year-old broker accused of arranging paid bail sureties to secure the release of former SriLankan Airlines CEO Kapila Chandrasena has been arrested by the Colombo Central Crimes Investigation Bureau (CCIB), police said on May 12.
The suspect, a resident of Colombo, has allegedly been involved in similar surety brokerage activities “for a considerable period of time,” police told NewsFirst. The arrest marks the third tier of accountability action in the bail surety thread within a week, after two paid guarantors were remanded on May 13 and an arrest warrant was issued and the bail subsequently revoked on May 7.
Chandrasena was arrested by the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption over accepting a USD 2 million bribe linked to the purchase of Airbus aircraft for the national carrier in 2013, and remanded. On May 5, the Colombo Chief Magistrate’s Court granted him bail under strict conditions, releasing him on a Rs. 500,000 cash bail along with three personal sureties of Rs. 10 million each.
Post-release investigations revealed that two of the three Rs. 10 million sureties had been produced after payments of Rs. 15,000 each were made to individuals to act as guarantors. Police arrested those two paid sureties and they were remanded. The broker’s arrest is the latest step, focusing on the procurement chain rather than the named guarantors.
The case sits alongside a parallel CIABOC track in which former President Mahinda Rajapaksa arrived at the bribery commission on May 12 to give evidence in the same Airbus deal.
Sources: NewsFirst — 74-Year-Old Broker Arrested Over Bail Sureties Linked to Former SriLankan Airlines CEO.
