Krrish Airbus investigations have put overlapping financial trails, alleged payments and offshore companies under renewed scrutiny in Sri Lanka.
COLOMBO — The unfinished concrete towers of the Krrish development in Colombo Fort and the long-running Airbus investigation involving SriLankan Airlines emerged from very different transactions. One concerned an ambitious property development; the other, the procurement of aircraft for the national carrier.
Yet investigations and recent court proceedings have placed financial intermediaries and offshore accounts associated with both controversies under renewed scrutiny, raising questions about whether apparently separate transactions crossed paths through some of the same financial channels.
The allegations remain subject to continuing investigations and court proceedings. Those accused are entitled to the presumption of innocence unless and until guilt is established by a court.
At the centre of the latest Krrish proceedings is an alleged Rs. 70 million payment to Parliamentarian Namal Rajapaksa. Separately, investigators examining the Airbus procurement have presented allegations concerning money transferred through BIZ Solutions and onward to Sabre Vision Holdings, a Singapore-linked company associated with businessman Nimal Perera.
It is the appearance of Perera and financial transactions linked to Sabre Vision Holdings in the wider investigative record that has drawn particular attention.
Indian Investigation Traces Funds to Colombo
The Krrish development was promoted as a major foreign investment centred on the historic Transworks Square property in Colombo Fort.
India’s Enforcement Directorate has since alleged that funds collected from homebuyers by Krrish Realtech in India were diverted overseas.
According to the ED, the company collected Rs. 503 crore from buyers for a residential plot development in Gurugram. Investigators allege that the project failed to deliver the promised plots and that approximately Rs. 205 crore was siphoned overseas to a Sri Lankan company, formerly known as Krrish Transworks Colombo (Pvt) Ltd, connected with the Colombo development.
The ED has described the funds as proceeds of crime and has taken action under India’s Prevention of Money Laundering Act against property connected with the investigation.
Against that international background, Sri Lankan investigators are examining a separate allegation concerning payments linked to the Colombo project.
CIABOC alleges that Rs. 70 million was paid to Namal Rajapaksa in three instalments in return for assistance in securing the transfer of the Urban Development Authority-owned Transworks Square property and expediting approvals required for the Krrish development.
Former Krrish executive Geethanjali Janaki de Soysa Siriwardena was arrested on September 24 and remanded until October 6 in connection with the investigation.
Investigators told court that the alleged Rs. 70 million payment was made through Nimal Perera.
CIABOC officers subsequently visited Welikada Prison on September 26 to record a statement from Rajapaksa concerning the Krrish investigation. The allegation has not been proved in court.
Earlier investigations had examined the same Rs. 70 million from a different legal perspective, including allegations concerning money represented as funding connected with rugby. The present bribery investigation concerns the alleged purpose for which the money was paid.
A separate FCID investigation reported to court in 2016 also examined an alleged Rs. 40 million transaction involving former Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Nalaka Godahewa and a Puttalam land deal connected with Krrish. The FCID alleged at the time that a forged deed had been used. That allegation should not be treated as an established finding of guilt.
The Airbus Trail Reaches Sabre Vision Holdings
The Airbus investigation developed along a different path.
Sri Lankan investigators have examined payments connected with the national carrier’s aircraft procurement arrangements and money transferred to BIZ Solutions Inc., associated with Priyanka Neomali Wijenayake, wife of former SriLankan Airlines Chief Executive Kapila Chandrasena.
Court proceedings in September have again brought that financial trail into focus.
According to submissions reported from the proceedings, €1.454 million was transferred by Airbus to a BIZ Solutions account in Singapore. Investigators allege that US$800,000 was subsequently transferred from that account to an OCBC Bank account in Singapore belonging to Sabre Vision Holdings Ltd, associated with Nimal Perera.
The alleged Airbus payment trail and the Krrish investigation are separate matters. Their significance lies in the appearance of Perera and Sabre Vision Holdings in financial investigations touching both controversies, rather than in any established judicial finding that the two schemes constituted a single criminal operation.
Investigators have also placed before court an affidavit attributed to Perera concerning the US$800,000.
According to prosecution submissions reported in September, Perera stated that the money received through the BIZ Solutions transaction was ultimately handed to Namal Rajapaksa in cash. Prosecutors have described that amount as approximately Rs. 100 million at the relevant time.
Those allegations remain before the courts and have not been established by a final judgment.
Earlier FCID investigations had separately identified Sabre Vision Holdings while tracing funds associated with transactions involving Rajapaksa-linked matters. Court reporting from 2019 stated that investigators had traced Rs. 70 million originating from Krrish and another Rs. 107 million from Sabre Vision Holdings in connection with their inquiries.
Taken together, the records demonstrate why investigators have focused on the movement of funds through offshore corporate structures and intermediaries. They do not, by themselves, establish that every transaction involving those entities arose from one coordinated criminal scheme.
Chandrasena’s Death Adds Another Unresolved Chapter
Kapila Chandrasena’s death on May 8, 2026 added another unresolved dimension to the Airbus investigation.
Police reported to the Fort Magistrate’s Court that the former SriLankan Airlines chief executive had been found dead under suspicious circumstances at a residence in Kollupitiya. His death came shortly after a court ordered his arrest following allegations that bail conditions had been violated.
The Colombo Crimes Division subsequently took over the investigation into his death.
Any suggestion about the cause of Chandrasena’s death or its relationship to the Airbus investigation would go beyond what has been established. Police treated the death as suspicious and opened an investigation; that does not establish that another person was responsible or that his death resulted from the corruption inquiry.
The source article also states that Chandrasena, before his death, told CIABOC that Rs. 60 million had been given to former President Mahinda Rajapaksa at residences in Carlton and Beliatta. That specific assertion requires documentary or court-record confirmation before it should be presented as established reporting.
Similarly, the source claims that Rs. 8 million connected with the Airbus money trail reached an entity belonging to Shamindra Rajapaksa, son of former minister Chamal Rajapaksa. Recent reporting on the Airbus proceedings has referred to a separate €160,400 transfer connected to Shamindra Rajapaksa. Because the figures and descriptions are not identical, they should not be treated as interchangeable without further verification.
Investigations Expand Under Anti-Corruption Law
Recent proceedings have also demonstrated the impact of Sri Lanka’s Anti-Corruption Act No. 9 of 2023 on major corruption investigations.
The source article argues that the legislation has significantly altered the legal environment for suspects seeking bail in high-value corruption cases. Bail provisions under the Act have become a central issue in several recent proceedings, including cases involving allegations against high-profile individuals.
Those legal mechanisms, however, operate within the broader requirements of due process. Arrest, remand or refusal of bail does not establish guilt.
The article also raises a separate concern over overcrowding and prolonged detention within Sri Lanka’s prison system. That issue is distinct from the merits of the Krrish and Airbus investigations, but it underlines the importance of balancing effective anti-corruption enforcement with the rights of suspects and prisoners.
Presidential Committee Examines SriLankan Airlines
Scrutiny of SriLankan Airlines extends beyond the Airbus criminal investigations.
In 2025, the government established a Presidential Special Committee of Inquiry to investigate alleged fraud, corruption and irregularities at SriLankan Airlines and Airport and Aviation Services (Sri Lanka) Ltd.
The Cabinet decision identified alleged irregularities at the institutions during 2010 to 2025, while the committee’s examination of procurement matters includes aircraft, goods and services transactions extending across the period from 2000 to 2025.
Its remit includes allegations involving abuse of power, unlawful privileges, service contracts, recruitment, aviation security, duty-free transactions, overseas sales agents and the procurement, leasing or acquisition of aircraft.
By May 2026, officials said the committee’s report was nearing completion.
The existence of the committee does not itself establish wrongdoing by any particular individual. Its purpose is to investigate allegations and report its findings.
One Intermediary, Separate Investigations
The temptation to describe Krrish and Airbus as one enormous criminal operation is understandable when names, accounts and intermediaries appear across different investigative files.
But the legal distinction matters.
India’s Enforcement Directorate has made allegations concerning money collected from homebuyers and transferred into the Sri Lankan Krrish project. CIABOC is investigating an alleged Rs. 70 million bribe connected with Transworks Square and project approvals. Separately, investigators examining Airbus-related payments have traced funds from BIZ Solutions to Sabre Vision Holdings and presented allegations about what happened to part of that money afterwards.
What links the narratives at this stage is the overlap appearing in the financial trails and the people through whom investigators allege funds moved.
Whether those overlaps ultimately establish a broader coordinated scheme is a matter for investigators and the courts, not assumption.
More than a decade after the Krrish towers began rising above Colombo and years after the Airbus scandal first exposed serious questions surrounding SriLankan Airlines’ aircraft procurement, both controversies continue to generate investigations.
The unfinished development in Colombo Fort remains a visible reminder of promises that were never completed. The financial records now being examined tell a more complicated story, one involving alleged payments, offshore companies, intermediaries and transactions crossing national borders.
The next stage must be determined by evidence: where the money originated, where it went, who controlled it and whether prosecutors can prove the offences they allege.
