2 July 2023 04:23 pm Views - 2591
Archbishop of Colombo Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, in a letter addressed to President Ranil Wickremesinghe informed him not to consider appointing Senior DIGs Nilatha Jayawardene and Deshabandu Tennekoon as IGP.
"The final report of the Commission of Inquiry to Investigate into the bomb attacks on Easter Sunday has clearly set out that Senior DIG Tennekoon had merely conducted himself as a messenger and had failed to discharge his duties in the given circumstances, considering the relevant information that had been received by him with regard to the threat of the attacks. Upon receiving crucial information of the threat of imminent attacks, it has been reported that he had not taken any extra steps and had failed to call for any reports pertaining to such information from junior officers. The commission had already recommended action against him," the Cardinal said in his letter.
"Moreover SDIG Tennekoon has been the officer who had spearheaded the police investigations into the incident where a hand grenade was discovered at All Saints Church on January 11 2022. Wt this instance police had proceeded to arbitrarily and baselessly arrest workers of the church even prior to viewing the CCTV footage," he added.
"The report of the Presidential Commission has said it is SDIG Nilantha Jayawardene who is most responsible for the inaction that resulted in the Easter Sunday bomb attacks," he also said. (Yohan Perera)