A fundamental rights petition filed by former CID Director SSP Shani Abeysekera makes chilling revelations about investigations into the National Thowheed Jamaath (NTJ), with filings that indicate high-level intelligence and military interference with his efforts to crack down on the terror cell responsible for the Easter Sunday bombings in April 2019.
On Friday, Abeysekera’s lawyers went to the Supreme Court seeking to prevent the retired CID sleuth’s arrest in connection with fresh, spurious charges being brought against him by the Government.
The CID has filed a B report at the Kuliyapitiya magistrate recently, alleging that Abeysekera’s dereliction of duty with regard to investigations into Zaharan and the NTJ had led to the Easter terror attacks that killed 269 people, including foreigners.
Responding to those charges in his Supreme Court petition, the former CID Director goes into extensive detail about the progression of his department’s investigations into Zaharan’s cell and how numerous state agencies, including the State Intelligence Service (SIS) and the Directorate of Military Intelligence (DMI) had tried to block those probes and mislead CID investigations.
As CID Director in 2019, Shani Abeysekera’s investigations in the immediate aftermath of the bombings led to the identification of the bombers and their hereto movements within hours of the attack. SSP Abeysekera in his 36-page petition reveals State military intelligence agencies knew of the identity of the failed Taj Samudra bomber Jamil, who later detonated his explosive device inside the Tropical Inn in Dehiwala.
“The Petitioner further states that later it was revealed that Military Intelligence officers have firstly visited Jamil’s mother’s house in Wellampitiya to find the whereabouts of Jamil, and after that proceeded to the house of Jamil in Dematagoda before the blast in Tropical Inn occurred.”. Abeysekera’s petition claims that while the DMI had refused to cooperate with the CID’s investigation into Zaharan’s operation, it had known the whereabouts of Jamil, one of the seven suicide bombers Zaharan had recruited all along.
The petition further says that investigations into the mysterious code-name “Sonic-Sonic” had led to a mobile SIM used by a Sub Inspector attached to the State Intelligence Service.
Previously it was reported that one of the suspects arrested in connection with the Easter bombings, had testified that a person with the code name ‘Sonic-Sonic’ had called and informed him to take responsibility for the bombings in the name of the terrorist group known as the Islamic State.
This bombshell revelation also says that on several occasions the SIS and the Military Intelligence prevented the CID from carrying out proper investigations.
The former CID Director’s petition also details how the DMI repeatedly misled the CID investigations into the killing of two policemen in Vavunathivu, Batticaloa, and how the CID even suspected the DMI had planted evidence to lead investigators to the LTTE rather than to Zaharan’s team.
Former CID Director Abeysekera was arrested in July 2020 on false charges of concealing and fabricating evidence in the case filed against eight suspects including former DIG Vass Gunawardena and his son who were convicted of murder in 2016.
Abeysekera was finally released in June 2021, after 11 months in prison because his lawyers finally petitioned the Court of Appeal. In its determination that ordered the High Court to grant Abeysekera bail, the country’s second highest court decimated the CCD case against the former CID director, calling the charges fabricated at the behest of the backers of murderers. The CCD case against Shani Abeysekera has gone no where since. However with the Catholic church demanding justice and answers about the Easter attacks that killed primarily Christian devotees attending Easter Sunday services in churches in Colombo, Negombo and Batticaloa, fresh charges are being raised against Shani Abeysekera, in a bid to lay the blame squarely on the ex-CID director’s shoulders for failing to prevent the bombings.
See the full petition filed at the Supreme Court : Full petition