Ranga Rajapaksa, an Assistant Director at the External Resources Department of the Finance Ministry who had been interdicted over the alleged USD 2.5 million Treasury cyber theft, was found dead under suspicious circumstances at his Kuliyapitiya residence on Thursday evening, police said.
Rajapaksa’s daughter noticed him lying in the garden and alerted her mother, who informed Kuliyapitiya Police, according to Ada Derana. Officers who arrived at the scene observed a fairly large bloodstain near a banana tree. He had sustained three cuts on one leg and an injury to his arm, and a small knife was recovered from the vicinity of the body.
Police are treating the incident as a suspicious death and are investigating whether it was a homicide, suicide or accidental. The Kuliyapitiya Magistrate visited the scene and conducted a magisterial inquiry.
Rajapaksa was one of the officials suspended by the Finance Ministry over the misplacement of a USD 2.5 million payment from Treasury funds, allegedly diverted by hackers who breached a ministry computer system. According to police, preliminary investigations indicated that the initial transfer of funds to a hacker-controlled account through a fraudulent email occurred due to negligence on his part, and that he had been the officer who responded to the initial email.
The Criminal Investigation Department had summoned Rajapaksa on three occasions in connection with the probe — once while in service and twice after his interdiction — and he had cooperated with investigators each time. His computer had also been taken into custody by the CID, and a court order had imposed an overseas travel ban on him. Police said initial background checks had revealed no prior corruption allegations against him and no evidence to support arrest, though he had been under significant distress following his suspension.
A senior police officer told Ada Derana that Rajapaksa’s death poses a serious setback to the ongoing investigation into the cyber theft, which was made as part of a debt settlement linked to a USD 22.9 million loan from the Australian government before being diverted via a business email compromise.
The death came hours after Treasury Secretary Dr. Harshana Suriyapperuma appeared before the parliamentary Committee on Public Finance over the same incident.
Two special police teams, each led by a Chief Inspector, have been deployed to investigate the death, Inspector General of Police Attorney-at-Law Priyantha Weerasooriya told NewsFirst on Friday. The Government Analyst also visited and examined the scene. The body was found behind Rajapaksa’s residence in Kuliyapitiya at approximately 2 p.m. on April 30, after he had gone to the rear of the property at around 10 a.m. Rajapaksa was 50 years old and a father of two.
Health Secretary Dr Anil Jasinghe confirmed on Friday that steps had been taken to appoint a panel of four Judicial Medical Officers to conduct the post-mortem at Kuliyapitiya Hospital — a larger-than-standard forensic team for an inquiry of this kind, reflecting the sensitivity of a death tied directly to the Treasury cyber-theft probe.
On Friday evening, Sri Lanka Police said the four-member JMC panel had completed the post-mortem and concluded that all injuries on Rajapaksa’s body were self-inflicted, ruling the death a suicide. The finding closes the homicide-versus-suicide inquiry that had been opened the previous day, though investigations into the underlying USD 2.5 million Treasury cyber theft remain active. Rajapaksa’s final rites were held on Saturday evening, May 2.
Police announced on Sunday, May 3, that the inquest report into Rajapaksa’s death will be submitted to the Kuliyapitiya Magistrate’s Court on May 25.
If you or someone you know is in distress, contact the National Mental Health Helpline on 1926 or Sumithrayo on +94 11 2682535.
Sources: Ada Derana, Ada Derana, Newswire, NewsFirst, NewsFirst — IGP, forensic team, Ada Derana — JMO panel, Ada Derana — suicide ruling, Newswire — cause of death, The Island — Health Secretary confirms forensic panel, Ada Derana — final rites, NewsFirst — laid to rest in Kuliyapitiya, NewsFirst — inquest report May 25.
