By Ruwan Weerakoon
(Lanka-e-News -15 Oct 2026,11.00 P.M.) Fort Magistrate Pasan Amarasena yesterday (14) sharply criticised the slow pace of police investigations into the mysterious death of Kapila Chandrasena, former Chief Executive Officer of SriLankan Airlines. It directed the court Registrar to inform the Inspector General of Police in writing of his displeasure.
The magistrate stressed in open court that the Criminal Investigation... rather, the Colombo Crime Division (CCD) had been unsatisfactory in obtaining data from Chandrasena's Apple mobile phone. Chandrasena was found dead in suspicious circumstances, with a noose around his neck.
Although the inquest evidence was concluded within a month of the death on May 8, the police have still failed to submit key evidence to court: the government analyst's reports, the post-mortem report and the mobile phone data. "The court alone cannot carry this process forward," the magistrate said, underlining the need to speed up the investigations.
When the case was called, the CCD told the court that on August 11 (another report gives August 18) it had emailed Apple in the United States, through the Ministry of Justice, requesting the phone data. The company said it can preserve the data for only 90 days, and the police said they sent a reminder after receiving no response. The 90 days are due to expire in November.
"When three months are over, is the data gone and the investigation over too?" the magistrate asked the police. Asking why the IGP or the Attorney General had not been told of any difficulty in obtaining such critical data, he ordered the CCD to inform them immediately and report to court the further steps taken.
The police also told court that reports on samples of four types of medication found where the deceased lay, sent to the Government Analyst, have not yet been received. The CCD said the Government Analyst had indicated by telephone that the reports would take a further two to three weeks. The post-mortem report has also not reached the police.
The magistrate accordingly ordered fresh reminders to the Judicial Medical Officer (the officer conducting the inquiry into sudden deaths) and the Government Analyst, asking that the post-mortem and analyst reports be sent to court urgently. The CCD was further directed to seek the guidance of the IGP and the Attorney General on the progress of the investigations.
Delays in the post-mortem and analyst reports in this case have been reported before. On July 8, it was reported that the magistrate had earlier ordered the Government Analyst's report to be called for urgently.
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by (2026-10-15 19:19:13)
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