The Colombo Crimes Division (CCD) has informed the Fort Magistrate’s Court that no data recordings were available from the CCTV system at the residence of former cricketer Aravinda de Silva, where former SriLankan Airlines CEO Kapila Chandrasena was found dead on May 7. The disclosure was made as the magisterial inquiry into Chandrasena’s death resumed on Wednesday.

When the Magistrate inquired whether all CCTV footage from the residence had been obtained, investigators told court that while the system at the house was operational, no data had been recorded. They added that footage from several neighbouring houses had been reviewed and clearly showed individuals entering and leaving the residence.

CCD officers also said they had inspected a Hyde Park property believed to belong to Chandrasena, registered in his wife’s name. Two laptops and several documents recovered there have been taken into custody as case material. Two types of unlabelled medication, wrapped in paper and found at the scene of death, will be sent to the Government Analyst for examination.

Six witnesses testified at the day’s inquiry. Attorney-at-Law Priyantha Upali Amarasinghe, who said he was the first to see Chandrasena deceased, described finding a chair turned towards a door with “a dark green tie hanging from the top” and a piece of cloth around the neck. Dr Lakshani Yashoda Liyanage testified that Chandrasena had been dead for approximately one to two hours when she examined him, noting the right pupil was dilated and fixed and rigor mortis had begun in the right arm.

Domestic worker Manathunga Mudiyanselage Somadasa testified that no external visitors came to meet Chandrasena from the time he returned to his Barnes residence on May 6 after securing bail until he left for Aravinda de Silva’s residence on May 7. Another worker, Subram Pramila, said Chandrasena phoned her around 11:30 pm on the night before his death asking her to pack clothes, two pairs of spectacles, medicine and “a blue belt kept under his sarong” that he used for exercise — the same belt later retrieved as evidence by the CCD.

The hearing is the latest stage in the magisterial inquest opened on May 12 into the death of the former CEO, who was found unresponsive at the de Silva residence in Colpetty on May 8.

Source: NewsFirst.