Sajin Vaas Gunawardena arrested

Former Member of Parliament Sajin Vaas Gunawardena was arrested today (09) by officials of the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption on charges of illegally acquiring assets worth Rs. 243.8 million. He was arrested this morning when he appeared before the commission to give a statement regarding the incident.

Born in 1973, Vaas was educated at Royal College, Colombo. Through his father, Abeydheera de Vaas Gunawardena, who served as the Director General of the Board of Investment in the 1990s, he gained early access to state and business networks. He later entered politics after being involved in institutions such as the Grayline Group and Hayleys, as well as in the aviation and import-export business sectors. He began his political career as a Southern Provincial Council member and was elected to Parliament from the Galle District in 2010, representing the United People's Freedom Alliance, serving in that capacity for nearly five years.

During the Rajapaksa administration, he was appointed as the Coordinating Secretary for Trade and Foreign Affairs to the then President, playing a significant role in guiding the government's economic and foreign investment policies. Mr. Gunawardena, who served as the Chief Executive Officer of the government-backed Mihin Lanka airline, launched in 2007, faced severe criticism regarding the massive financial losses and irregularities within the institution. He was also accused of making personal financial gains by appointing a company in Singapore, where his third wife served as a director, as the passenger sales agent for Mihin Lanka.

In 2015, the Bribery Commission banned his passport, and in June 2016, he was arrested and remanded by the Financial Crimes Investigation Division (FCID) on charges of extorting Rs. 610 million from businessman Krishna Selvanathan and money laundering. Furthermore, although the Colombo High Court had acquitted him in a case involving a loss of Rs. 883 million to the government, the Court of Appeal in 2025 overturned that decision and ordered a retrial. Additionally, due to his failure to appear in court for a case related to income tax evasion of Rs. 36.9 million, the Colombo Magistrate's Court issued a warrant against him in January 2026, based on a case filed by the Department of Inland Revenue.

Sajin Vaas Gunawardena, once considered one of the most powerful figures in the Rajapaksa administration, was also denied nomination by the United People's Freedom Alliance for the August 2015 parliamentary election. Many critics have identified him as a symbol of the "crony capitalism" that emerged during President Mahinda Rajapaksa's rule, and his name is frequently cited as an example in discussions about parliamentary accountability, aviation sector collapses, and corruption investigations in post-2015 Sri Lanka.