Finance officer death confirmed as suicide by four judicial medical officers after post-mortem into Ranga Rajapaksa’s suspicious death.
Finance officer death investigations have taken a decisive turn after a committee of four judicial medical officers confirmed that Ministry of Finance Assistant Director Ranga Rajapaksa died by suicide caused by self-inflicted injuries.
Rajapaksa, an Assistant Director of the Department of External Resources at the Treasury, had been suspended from work in connection with the incident in which $2.5 million belonging to the Ministry of Finance allegedly fell into the hands of fraudsters.
His death under suspicious circumstances in his garden yesterday, April 30, triggered intense public attention because of his link to the ongoing Treasury fraud investigation.
Police earlier stated that three incisions had been observed on one foot and one hand.
At that stage, police investigations were continuing to determine whether the death was a suicide or homicide.
This raised concerns due to the sensitive nature of the case and the broader controversy surrounding the $2.5 million Ministry of Finance incident.
Secretary to the Ministry of Health, Specialist Dr. Anil Jasinghe, stated that a board of four judicial medical experts had been appointed to conduct the post-mortem examination of the Ministry of Finance Assistant Director.
The Magistrate’s inquiry into the incident was conducted yesterday.
The post-mortem examination was then carried out this afternoon, May 1, at the Kuliyapitiya Teaching Hospital.
Accordingly, the committee of four judicial medical officers appointed to determine the cause of death has confirmed that Rajapaksa’s death was a suicide caused by self-inflicted injuries.
The confirmation brings an important medical finding to a case that had generated widespread speculation after the discovery of the body.
However, questions remain over the wider Treasury fraud investigation, including how the $2.5 million payment reached fraudsters and what role internal systems, oversight failures, or procedural weaknesses may have played.
Rajapaksa’s death has added further pressure on authorities to ensure that the investigation into the Ministry of Finance incident continues transparently and without delay.
What happens next could be critical, as public confidence will depend not only on the post-mortem finding, but also on whether investigators can clearly establish how the Treasury payment scandal unfolded and who should be held accountable.
