As former SriLankan Airlines CEO Kapila Chandrasena was laid to rest, funeral footage has dragged old SriLankan Airlines scandals back into the spotlight, including the controversial Phoenix Duty Free deal first exposed by The Sunday Leader and later pursued through detailed reporting by Colombo Telegraph.
While former SriLankan Airlines CEO Kapila Chandrasena was laid to rest, video clips circulating on mainstream television and social media captured several individuals arriving to pay their final respects.
But with Chandrasena’s death itself already surrounded by intense public speculation, the presence of certain figures at the solemn occasion has now reopened memories of another dark chapter in SriLankan Airlines’ troubled past.
One such figure seen at the funeral was Raju Chandiram, the former Managing Director of Phoenix Duty Free Services, the controversial inflight duty-free supplier once linked to one of the most questionable commercial arrangements involving the national carrier.
The sighting has added another layer of intrigue to a story already soaked in controversy, because Chandrasena’s name was not only tied to the explosive Airbus aircraft procurement scandal, but also to older allegations surrounding SriLankan Airlines’ inflight duty-free business.
The Sunday Leader First Blew the Lid Open
What must not be forgotten is that this controversial duty-free story was first broken by The Sunday Leader, through the work of its respected and fearless journalist Frederica Jansz.
At the time, Jansz exposed serious questions surrounding how SriLankan Airlines’ inflight duty-free operation had been handed over to Phoenix Rising Ventures, later connected to Phoenix Duty Free Services, without what critics described as proper tender transparency. Her reporting also placed the conduct of then SriLankan Airlines Chairman Nishantha Wickremesinghe under direct scrutiny, including allegations surrounding the awarding of duty-free and wine supply contracts. A reproduced version of Jansz’s report states that Wickremesinghe personally selected the company handling inflight duty-free sales, while the operation was linked to Dilan Wirasinghe from Canada and Raju Chandirum from Sri Lanka.
The same reporting also raised questions over allegations that Wickremesinghe had received a Rolex watch connected to the Phoenix deal, an allegation he denied when questioned.
Colombo Telegraph Later Followed the Trail
After The Sunday Leader first exposed the issue, Colombo Telegraph later published further reports carrying details and allegations on what it described as the wider fraud surrounding the Phoenix duty-free operation.
Colombo Telegraph reported that Phoenix Duty Free Services, which had started as Phoenix Rising Ventures Ltd, was an unknown company with no prior experience when it was awarded the SriLankan Airlines inflight duty-free contract. It further reported that the contract was signed by then CEO Kapila Chandrasena and Manager Inflight Services Rashmore Ferdinands, with the approval of then Chairman Nishantha Wickramasinghe.
The controversy deepened further when it was alleged that Chandrasena later amended the signed contract midway through the partnership, allowing millions of U.S. dollars to flow back in favour of the duty-free operators. The justification reportedly centered on a discrepancy in passenger count figures, a key component used to calculate the minimum guaranteed payment Phoenix was expected to make to SriLankan Airlines.
In simple terms, the airline allegedly lost millions because the passenger numbers used in the original calculation were later challenged as including duplicated transit passengers, especially those travelling through Colombo from origin to final destination.
Rumesh Dilan Wirasinghe and Offshore Questions
The Phoenix operation was headed by Sri Lankan-born Canadian businessman Rumesh Dialn Wirasingha, a Thomian from the batch of 1988, with Raju Chandiram serving as Managing Director.
Colombo Telegraph subsequently reported that Wirasingha’s name had appeared in offshore leaks connected to the Panama Papers, raising further questions over whether funds linked to his business empire had been moved through offshore structures. It remains unclear whether Canadian authorities ever questioned Wirasingha over those offshore accounts or any monies connected to the SriLankan Airlines duty-free operation.
A Funeral That Reopened an Old Wound
For many observers, the appearance of figures linked to these old controversies at Chandrasena’s funeral was not just a passing moment caught on camera.
It was a reminder of an era when SriLankan Airlines was repeatedly accused of being weakened by questionable contracts, political influence, tender irregularities, and commercial decisions that allegedly cost the national carrier millions of dollars.
Chandrasena has now been laid to rest.
But the scandals that surrounded his time at SriLankan Airlines have clearly not disappeared with him.
The Airbus scandal remains one of the most explosive corruption cases in Sri Lankan aviation history. The Phoenix Duty Free scandal, first exposed by The Sunday Leader and later pursued through Colombo Telegraph’s reporting, remains another unresolved wound in the long and troubled story of the national carrier.
And now, with funeral footage dragging old names back into public view, one question returns with renewed force:
How many deals, how many losses, and how many hidden networks still remain buried inside the story of SriLankan Airlines?
