Legal action to be filed against those who defamed Ravi and Shani

The Easter Sunday attack on April 21, 2019 claimed the lives of over 250 individuals

Plans are afoot to file legal actions within the next few days against those who were involved in defaming former Rtd. Senior DIG CID Ravi Seneviratne (presently Secretary Ministry of Public Security) and Rtd. Director CID SSP Shani Abeysekera (presently Director Crimes Sri Lanka Police). Those who were responsible in endorsing unreasonable recommendations against the said duo in the scandalous De Alwis Easter Attack Committee Report too are likely to face legal action, the Daily Mirror learns.

Following the recent allegations levelled against former Rtd. Senior DIG CID  Ravi Seneviratne and Rtd. Director CID SSP Shani Abeysekera in the politically motivated Easter attack reports, startling revelations have now been made as to why a three member committee was appointed hurriedly by the then President Ranil Wickremesinghe on June 12, 2024.

As of the information, this committee has been appointed not with an intention to find facts relating to the Easter attackers and its masterminds, but allegedly to take revenge from Ravi Seneviratne who has repeatedly turned down the requests made by the Chief of Staff to the former President to work hand in glove with them in the run up to the presidential polls. Instead, Seneviratne formed the Retired Police Forum with other retired police officers to support the National People’s Power (NPP).

When contacted, SDIG Seneviratne to find out whether a request was made to him to support the then government during the election campaign, he refused to comment on it, but said that the then regime and even the opposition were disheartened as he and SSP Shani Abeysekera had joined the NPP election campaign.      

According to Seneviratne and Abeysekera, the reason to appoint this three member committee Chaired by Rtd High Court Judge A.N. Jayaki de Alwis and K.N.K. Somaratne and senior attorney W.A.M.N. Nishantha as the members was to safeguard the Easter attack masterminds and not to find out those involved in the barbaric act. 

 “When we took to the stage on June 9, 2024, at the Youth Centre at Maharagama, we exposed details of how this investigation was impeded by the respective leaders since the attack. Following this, the Daily Mirror Newspaper carried an interview with me where I gave all the details as to how the CID officers were misled by the State Intelligence Services (SIS) and the Directorate of Military Intelligence (DMI) following the murder of two police constables (PC) at Vavunathivu in Batticaloa on November 30, 2018, which was the turning point of Saharan’s mission that led to the Easter attack five months later. When these details came out, a certain group of police officers panicked and started attacking me and Abeysekera. That was why this committee recommended to prosecute me instead of finding out who the real offenders are and prosecute them for negligence of their duties,” Seneviratne said.

According to Seneviratne, the intelligence services repeatedly framed former LTTE carders for these murders; preventing the CID probe turning towards Muslim extremists National Thowheed Jamath (NTJ). 

According to him, the DMI had allegedly sent four false reports to the CID on December 5th, 8th, 14th 2018, and January 3, 2019. All these reports revealed that the murders were committed by the EX-LTTE cardres to prevent them from honouring the dead on November 26, 2018. Had the SIS provided the right information to the CID when they were carrying out the Vavunathivu murder investigation and later during the attacks on Buddhist shrines at Mawanella, the CID could have easily prevented the Easter attack and saved the lives of more than 250 including foreign nationals and the extensive damages caused to Churches and five star hotels in the country. 

Both Seneviratne and Abeysekera told the Daily Mirror that they were shocked to find out how De Alwis Committee that was appointed on June 12, 2024, compiled a politically motivated report within a very short period that was handed over to the then President Ranil Wickremesinghe on September 17, which was four days before the presidential elections. 

Seneviratne added, ‘The sole intention was to accuse both of us and the three member committee that carried out the ‘duty’ they were entrusted with by their political ‘Masters’.

Although Udaya Gammanpila, referring to the said De Alwis Committee Report maintained that, it has recommended Seneviratne to be prosecuted for negligence of duty which resulted the spate of attacks on churches and hotels on 2019 Easter Sunday and urged the government to remove Seneviratne from his current position in the Public Security Ministry, a senior police officer in service queried whether Gammanpila forgot to make such a request from the previous regime to remove IGP Deshabandu Tennakoon on his negligence to prevent the Katuwapitiya bomb explosion.

According to police sources, the then IGP Pujith Jayasundara was informed by Chief of National Intelligence for Secretary Defence, Sisira Mendis by letter dated April 9, 2019, that there was a plan for a suicide attack shortly. 

Letter reveals plans for the attacks 

The letter has further stated, ‘Information received by the State Intelligence Service (SIS) reveals that Sri Lankan based Zahran Hashim of National Towheed Jamath and his associates are planning to carry out a suicide terrorist attack in Sri Lanka shortly. It is also revealed that they are planning to target some important churches in the country. According to the information, the Indian High Commission in Sri Lanka is one of the targets amongst the planned attack and reconnaissance has already been conducted..

‘As per the SIS report, these individuals may adopt any of the following modes of attack- suicide, weapon, knife or truck attack and this also reveals that the likely team members of the planned suicide terrorist attack would be – Zahran Hashim, Jal Al Quithal, Rilwan, Sajid Moulavi, Shahid, Milan and others

‘It is important to alert the Law Enforcement Agencies to be vigilant concerning the information..

‘When the information of this alleged suicide plan was sent to the IGP, he has immediately sent copies of this important information report, on the same day to Senior DIG STF and Crime, Senior DIG Western Province, DIG Special Protection Division and Director Terrorist and Investigation Division’

Upon receiving this ‘Top Priority and Secret’ letter, Senior DIG Western Province has immediately informed about this to his subordinates - the DIGs in charge of Western Province North, Western Province South and Western Province Central.  

‘Deshabandu Tennakoon was the DIG Western Province North and was in charge of security from Peliyagoda to Puttalam where the Katuwapitiya church was situated. During the inquiries it was revealed how Deshabandu Tennakoon neglected his duties and instead of taking action, allegedly went on holiday to a resort in the East. Taking these facts into consideration why couldn’t Gammanpila agitate when Tennakoon was appointed IGP. Although Gammanpila said that a copy of this letter was sent to SDIG CID Ravi Seneviratne as well, but he neglected his duties and did not take any action is completely a misleading statement. Since we have not seen this report we do not know whether the report has stated what Gammanpila said,” the sources speaking this newspaper said on strict conditions of anonymity. 

Secretary Ministry of Public Security Ravi Seneviratne confirmed that the IGP had sent copies of this letter to four Police Units, but said that the IGP had never sent this letter to him, but it was SDIG Nilantha Jayawardena who had sent a copy of the letter to his office on April 9, in an envelope bearing the ‘Top Priority’ stamp.

“I left for France on April 8, 2019, to attend the Interpol General Assembly and returned on the 13th. After the Sinhala New Year, I went back to office on April 16th. When I saw this letter on my table, I immediately checked with the IGPs office and took prompt action to inform the CID staff about these threats. When I left the country DIG CID, Sugath Nagahamulla was appointed as the Acting SDIG CID. Knowing that I was out of the country and there is an officer overseeing my duties, Nilantha Jayawardena should have dispatched this letter to DIG Nagahamulla. If any letter comes with a ‘Top Priority’ tag, the acting official has no authority to open it. Had it come under a ‘Secret’ stamp, the acting has the authority to open it and take action. Since this letter came with the ‘Top Priority’ stamp, DIG Nagahamulla has not opened it,” Seneviratne said. 

Speaking further, former Director CID, SSP Shani Abeysekera said that the CID neither has the authority to conduct cordon and search operations nor set up road blocks. 

“The CID officers are in civvies and not in uniform. How can our officers in civvies conduct these operations. We can come under attack from the general public if we try to engage in cordon and search operations. That may be the reason why the IGP did not send this letter to the CID, but to other four high ranking officers whose duties were to carry out these operations,” SSP Abeysekera said.

He further queried on what grounds the De Alwis Committee Report had made recommendations to prosecute Ravi Seneviratne, but in the same has made recommendations to take disciplinary action against Deshabandu Tennakoon. 

“This is a joke. Tennakoon was in charge of Katuwapitiya church area and deliberately failed to prevent the attack. But the committee has made recommendations only to take disciplinary action against him (Tennakoon) and the SDIG who was in charge of the CID and had no authority to involve in cordon and search operations or to provide security for the described areas,” SSP Abeysekara said.

According to SSP Abeysekera, the Presidential Committee of Inquiry appointed by President Maithripala Sirisena and Chaired by Supreme Court Judge Janaka de Silva and its members Justice of the Court of Appeal Bandula Karunaratne, Rtd Justice of the CA, Sunil Rajapaksa, Rtd HC Judge Bandula Atapattu and two other high ranking officials led evidence from 475 people, obtained statements from 1588 people and 2, 377 documents were referred to compile the expert report on Easter attack from September 21, 2019 until January 31, 2021.  “For eighteen days, I was summoned before this Commission to get my statements recorded and Ravi Seneviratne was summoned for four days.  Out of these 18 days, most of the time, I was brought from the remand prison as I was under arrest. But for the controversial Jayaki de Alwis report, our statements were recorded only for two days each. This shows how they concluded the report hurriedly just before the presidential election,” SSP Abeysekera added.   

According to Seneviratne, although both he and SSP Abeysekera were summoned to the Presidential Commission of Inquiry to record statements, the report hasn’t found faults with any of them.   

 “I have not seen this committee report in question, but have gone through the Presidential Commission of Inquiry report. In this Commission report, it has recommended the Attorney General to take legal action against police officers including Deshabandu Tennakoon for failing to prevent the Easter attacks. Has this Committee report too made such recommendations against these accused police officers” Seneviratne queried. 

Seneviratne further challenged Gammanpila to prove that Suresh Sallay was not present in Sri Lanka in the run-up to the Easter attack.

“We have all the proof to prove Gammanpila is lying. Those who have gone through the Presidential Committee of Inquiry Report, know the contents in the statement that the then Defence Secretary Hemasiri Fernando had given. He has stated that Sallay came with the Military Liaising Officer to meet him. All the allegations Gammanpila has levelled against me or Shani Abeysekera are baseless. They know that we will not leave any stone unturned in bringing the criminals to book unless there is no political interference to stop the investigations. President Anura Kumara Dissanayake gave us an assurance that neither he nor his ministers will interfere in any of the investigations and the only request made was to carry out proper and credible investigations. So we are now in this process and soon we can find out who were behind this brutal attack that caused the loss of nearly 300 lives,” Seneviratne added.    

Meanwhile, Seneviratne said that his team of investigators could have concluded the investigation and brought the criminals to book had they were given few more months before his officers were transferred out of the CID in November 2019. 

Seneviratne further revealed how his most senior officer, Director CID Shani Abeysekera was transferred (soon after Gotabaya Rajapaksa assumed Presidential duties in November 2019) as the Personnel Assistant to the DIG Galle District which crippled all the high profile investigations. According to him, this transfer was made even before a Prime Minister was appointed in the new government.