No bail reprieve for Sri Lankan police chief

Colombo, Mar 20 (PTI) Deshabandu Tennakoon, the suspended inspector general of police, was on Thursday refused bail in a case related to a shooting incident in 2023 and will now spend time in remand custody till April 3.
     Tennakoon surrendered to the court on Wednesday after evading arrest for over two weeks.
     The magistrate’s court in the southern town of Matara refused bail to Tennakoon, who was remanded till Thursday after his surrender.
     Officials said that he was kept in a special cell in isolation from the rest of the inmates at the Angunakolapelessa prison further south of Matara last night.
     His lawyers pleaded bail yesterday but came up with stiff resistance from the state attorney who charged that Tennakoon had run a criminal ring while holding the position of police chief.
     The police chief had two days ago lost his appeal at the Court of Appeal to prevent his arrest. The Appeal Court refused his plea without a hearing.
     Tennakoon, under suspension since July 2024, remained a fugitive and was hiding since the Magistrate’s court in Matara on February 28 ordered his arrest over the December 2023 incident in the southern resort of Weligama.
     As the inspector general, Tennakoon had sent police officers from the Colombo Crime Division (CCD) to the resort hotel in Weligama for a raid in connection with illegal drugs. However, the Weligama police, unaware of the undercover operation, opened fire at the CCD vehicle, killing an officer.
     The police sought public support to arrest their chief while deploying six teams to hunt for Tennakoon after the Matara court order.
     Tennakoon was suspended in July 2024 from functioning by the Supreme Court, which also ordered a hearing on the legality of his appointment after it received petitions regarding it.
     He was appointed as the police chief in November 2023 despite him being found guilty of torturing a person in custody by the Supreme Court in a fundamental rights petition.
     An acting police chief was appointed in November last year pending the outcome of Tennekoon’s case.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)