Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) MP Namal Rajapaksa has raised concerns over the inclusion of Director of the Central Criminal Intelligence Analysis Bureau, SSP Shani Abeysekara, to the Police Committee appointed to study the Presidential Commission of Inquiry report on the 2019 Easter attacks.
Acting IGP Priyantha Weerasooriya, yesterday, appointed SSP Shani Abeysekara to the committee investigating the report, increasing its members from four to five.
SSP Shani Abeysekara has been added to the committee headed by SDIG Asanga Karawita, which also consists of the DIG of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), the Director of the CID, and the Director of the Terrorism Investigation Division (TID).
Commenting on the inclusion, SLPP MP Namal Rajapaksa said the appointment of Shani Abeysekara to the team of Police officers studying the PCoI Report on Easter Sunday attacks raises serious red flags.
Taking to ‘X’, he said it is completely inappropriate for someone who was not only involved in the original investigation but also named in the report and summoned as a witness to now be placed in a position of oversight.
MP Namal Rajapaksa pointed out that this is not merely a procedural misstep, but it was a breach of every ethical standard.
“This casts a dark shadow over the credibility of the entire process. Justice must not only be done, but it must also be seen to be done. When public trust is already fragile, such decisions only deepen suspicion and disillusionment,” he said.
Stating that Shani Abeysekara, as Director of the CID during the time of the attacks, was at the heart of the initial investigations, MP Rajapaksa said to now place him in a role that demands objectivity and detachment is ironic, and raises justifiable concern, especially when the report itself names him.
“Further compounding this issue are recent political statements made by Shani Abeysekara, clearly exposing his political biases. How can the public be expected to believe in the neutrality of this process when the person overseeing it has clear political entanglements?
“This is not a partisan issue. It is a matter of moral clarity and institutional integrity. The victims of the Easter attacks and the people of Sri Lanka deserve a process that is transparent, credible, and above all, fair. Anything less would be an injustice not only to those who suffered but to the very idea of accountability,” he added.
On 20 April, under the directive of President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, the final report of the Presidential Commission of Inquiry into the Easter Sunday attacks was formally submitted to the CID.
Following the submission, the Police appointed a four-member committee to study and conduct further investigations into the 2019 Easter Sunday terror attacks. (Newswire)