Public Security Ministry Secretary Ravi Seneviratne has admitted guilt to one of the charges filed against him in connection with a 2023 accident on Marine Drive, Wellawatte.

Appearing before the Mount Lavinia Magistrate’s Court, Seneviratne pleaded guilty to the charge of “failure to prevent an accident.” Magistrate Kanchana Neranjala Silva subsequently imposed a fine of Rs. 2,500.

His legal representatives informed the court that their client accepted responsibility for the first charge.

The case was taken up today (09) to determine punishment for the initial charge and to decide whether the remaining allegations of “reckless driving” and “driving under the influence” would proceed.

The Magistrate ordered the case to be recalled on August 20, when the court will continue hearings on the two outstanding charges and confirm payment of the fine imposed. (Newswire)

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Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) MP Nizam Kariapper says Secretary to the Ministry of Public Security, retired SDIG Ravi Seneviratne, has disclosed that the main conspirator behind the 2019 Easter Sunday attacks has been identified.

MP Nizam Kariapper said Ravi Seneviratne had revealed this in response to a question raised by him before the Parliamentary Committee on High Posts, recently. 

“Before the High Posts Committee, in response to my question, Ravi Seneviratna stated: We have identified the main conspirator behind the Easter Sunday attack,” MP Nizam Kariapper said in his post on ‘X’.  (Newswire)

Before the High Posts Committee, in response to my question, Ravi Seneviratna stated:

“We have identified the main conspirator behind the Easter Sunday attack.”

During his confirmation as Secretary to the Ministry of Public Security.#EasterAttack #SriLanka #Parliament…

— Nizam Kariapper (@Nizamkariapper) October 9, 2025

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The Court of Appeal today issued an interim order temporarily halting proceedings in the case against Public Security Ministry Secretary Ravi Seneviratne at the Mount Lavinia Magistrate’s Court.

Seneviratne, a retired Senior Deputy Inspector General, faces charges stemming from an October 2023 traffic incident in which he was accused of drunk driving and related offences.

His lawyers petitioned for the case to be transferred to another court, arguing that the Mount Lavinia Magistrate had erred in continuing the trial despite police informing the court that the Attorney General had advised against pursuing the charge of drunk driving. The defence maintained that this created a risk of an unfair trial.

Taking these submissions into account, the bench comprising Justices Mayadunne Corea and Mahen Gopallawa ordered the suspension of the Magistrate’s Court proceedings until the petition is fully heard. 

Notices were issued to the respondents, including the Officer-in-Charge of the Wellawatte Police, to submit objections by September 23.

The Court scheduled further consideration of the petition for November 25. (Newswire)

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The Colombo Archdiocese has refuted claims that the Archbishop of Colombo had requested the reinstatement of former Criminal Investigations Department (CID) Director Shani Abeysekera and Retired Senior DIG Ravi Seneviratne to head the investigations by the current government into the 2019 Easter attacks.

Leader of the House, Minister Bimal Rathnayake, recently said in Parliament that Shani Abeysekera and Ravi Seneviratne were brought into the Police Force on the request of Archbishop, His Eminence, Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith. 

Refuting the claims, Director of Communications for the Archdiocese of Colombo, Fr. Cyril Gamini Fernando, told the media that no such request had been made from the President or any person by the Archbishop or the Colombo Archdiocese. 

Fr. Cyril Gamini Fernando said that the team probing the Easter attacks was changed following the election of Gotabaya Rajapaksa as President.

“During this change, Ravi Seneviratne retired, and Shani Abeysekara was arrested and remanded. The original team was completely changed and transferred. The probe into the Easter attacks stalled because of this,” he said. 

Fr. Cyril Gamini Fernando clarified that a request was only made by the Colombo Archdiocese to include the previously transferred officers of the CID, who were involved in the initial probe, to the teams that are continuing the investigations into the Easter attacks. 

Pointing out that it is now evident that Shani Abeysekara was among those officers, Fr. Cyril Gamini Fernando said, however, no request was made by specifically naming any individual, including Shani Abeysekara or Ravi Seneviratne. 

Director of Communications for the Archdiocese of Colombo, Fr. Cyril Gamini Fernando, made the remarks while addressing the media today (21). (Newswire)

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Former MP Udaya Gammanpila claims current Secretary to the Ministry of Public Security former senior DIG Ravi Seneviratne was informed of the 2019 Easter Sunday attacks, but had failed to act on it at the time. 

He made the claim while holding a special press conference today to present facts on the two unpublished investigations related to the Easter Attacks. 

Details revealed in the two reports;

Udaya Gammanpila told the media that the probe reports state that Ravi Seneviratne who was the head of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) at the time, was informed of the attacks. 

The reports he was talking about were from the Committee appointed by former President Ranil Wickremesinghe and received close to the recent Presidential Election. 

Gammanpila said a committee chaired by retired Supreme Court Justice S I Imam had investigated and reported on the 25 allegations made in the “Channel-4” video about the Easter attacks, adding that the investigation focused on finding out whether the allegations were true or not. 

The second investigation report conducted under a committee chaired by retired Justice A.N.J. de Alwis, he said focussed on whether the Police and State Intelligence Services had failed in any way to prevent the attacks.

Questioning why the incumbent President was attempting to conceal the two unpublished reports, MP Gammanpila revealed it was due to page 40 of the second report clearly stating that the Senior DIG of the CID being informed by the Head of the State Intelligence Service on 09th April 2019 of a potential attack on prominent places, including churches, by the Thowheed Jammath militant group headed by Zahran Hashim.

Former MP Gammanpila further noted that the Senior DIG mentioned in the report is the current Secretary to the Ministry of Public Security Ravi Seneviratne.

“The report raises serious allegations against Ravi Seneviratne. The former Senior DIG has also filed a case at the Supreme Court seeking to prevent his arrest in this regard,” Gammanpila revealed. 

The former MP said the report states that in April 2019 Ravi Seneviratne had been overseas from 09 -16 April and had appointed Officer Nagamulla in his stead, but the letter warning of the attacks had not been conveyed to Officer Nagamulla, prompting Gammanpila to question how such a letter had not been handed over to the officer in charge.

“When inquired, the Senior DIG’s Office had informed the Commission that they had been instructed by Seneviratne not to open confidential letters addressed to his name in his absence. As such, the letter had been on the table of Ravi Seneviratne for nearly 12 days,” Gammanpila said. 

The former MP said that the report also says that Ravi Seneviratne had received 13 reports from January to April 2019 on the activities of Zahran Hashim and his team, and was in charge of several key investigations such as the destruction of a Buddha Statue in Mawanella in 2018, religious tensions in Katandy in 2017, murder of Police officers in Vavunativu in 2018, and finding explosives in Wanathavilluwa in 2019.

Stating that Ravi Seneviratne had the opportunity to initiate action against Zahran and his team, Gammanpila said the former Senior DIG was in charge of the Terrorism Investigation Unit and the CID, and had also been in constant contact with the State Intelligence Service, but had failed to take the necessary actions to prevent the Easter attacks. 

Udaya Gammanpila further said that page 41 of the second report says that legal action must be initiated against Ravi Seneviratne on charges of negligence.

Stating that the reports clearly name Ravi Seneviratne as a key accused in the 2019 Easter attacks, Gammanpila Pointed out that, however, Seneviratne has now been appointed as the high-ranking official of the Ministry in charge of the Police, which was conducting investigations into the attacks. 

Gammanpila questioned if the victims and relatives would gain justice if a new investigation was conducted under the leadership of Ravi Seneviratne and if they could expect a transparent investigation from the Police.

Calling for action;

Udaya Gammanpila said under such circumstances concerns were raised on the appointment of Ravi Seneviratne as the Secretary to the Ministry of Public Security, which is in charge of the Sri Lanka Police.

“On one side he has filed an FR petition seeking to prevent his arrest by the Police, at a time when the Police were conducting a probe, and at the same time, he has been appointed as the key official in charge of the Police Department. Under such circumstances will the Police be able to do an impartial investigation?” Gammanpila questioned. 

He further revealed that Ravi Seneviratne is someone who was remanded for causing an accident while under the influence of alcohol. 

Showing these facts, we pointed out that it was wrong to appoint Ravi Seneviratne as the Secretary to the Ministry of Public Security, but the President has not taken this into consideration, he said. 

Pointing out that several of the new government appointments were of those who had aided the President’s Presidential campaign, Gammanpila said if the two unpublished Easter attack reports were not unveiled then it could have assisted the President in concealing facts against those appointed. 

Former MP Udaya Gammnapila, thereby, called on the authorities to immediately remove Ravi Seneviratne from the post of Secretary to the Ministry of Public Security. 

He also called on the President to issue a public apology for abusing his powers by concealing information from the public by attempting to keep the two reports unpublished. 

Gammanpila warned that if the President fails to do as requested, measures will be taken to present an impeachment against the President in the next Parliament. 

The Pivithuru Hela Urumaya (PHU) Leader has unveiled details of the two reports, after warning the government last week, that he will release the reports to the public if the government fails to publish them. (Newswire)

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Secretary to the Ministry of Public Security, former Senior DIG Ravi Seneviratne has engaged in a discussion with the Police Department on the progress of various investigations conducted into fraud, crimes, and other major offences. 

At the discussion at the Police Headquarters yesterday, attention was focused on probes currently underway, those that have been temporarily halted, if such investigations were halted due to political reasons, delayed probes, and investigations yet to be commenced. 

In a statement, Sri Lanka Police said discussions were also held on whether some cases had been influenced and if not, the cause for delays regarding its progress. 

Alongside the Secretary to the Ministry of Public Security, Acting IGP Priyantha Weerasuriya, senior officials of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID), and other senior officials of the Police Department participated in the discussion. (Newswire)

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A retired police commander has shed new light on claims that the former Sri Lankan government may have colluded with a terrorist group for political gain, resulting in the deaths of hundreds of people, including Australians, in the 2019 Easter Sunday bombings, Australia’s ABC News reported.

The attacks by Islamic state-inspired terrorists on churches and luxury hotels killed 269 people including two Australians and injured about 500 other people.

The head of the Catholic Church in Sri Lanka is now calling on the Australian government to support an independent investigation into the allegations, a call backed by Melbourne woman Chathudilla Weerasinghe, who survived the attack on Colombo’s Kingsbury hotel.

“They should carry out an investigation … because there were so many blasts on the date — similar timings, coordinated – it has to be a major planned-out thing,” Ms Weerasinghe said.

In September, the UK’s Channel 4 aired claims by a former government aide, Asad Maulana, that a top intelligence official met with members of the terrorist group National Thowheed Jam’ath (NTJ) as part of an alleged plot to help former Sri Lankan president Gotabaya Rajapaksa win government by creating a national security crisis from the attacks.

Now, the former head of the investigation into the bombings has spoken out for the first time about what he claims was political interference which derailed the police probe.

Former deputy inspector general of police Ravi Seneviratne said his team was taken off the case when Mr Rajapaksa took office six months after the bombings.

Mr Seneviratne told ABC Investigations that his lead investigator was removed without explanation “immediately after the new government was elected — at the time, not even a prime minister or the cabinet had been appointed”.

He said over the months that followed, 22 more officers were removed from the investigation, “but I was not given any reason for any of those transfers”.

The incoming government also imposed an overseas travel ban on more than 700 Criminal Investigation Department officers under Mr Seneviratne’s command.

Mr Seneviratne said this was seen as a bid to intimidate police who might investigate allies of the Rajapaksa regime.

“This was quite illegal,” Mr Seneviratne said.

Police charged more than 90 people in connection with the Easter Sunday attacks, but Mr Seneviratne said investigators hit roadblocks when they found “some intelligence officers had links with the Muslim group”.

One of these was unearthed with help from the US Federal Bureau of Investigation, which traced regular communications with the NTJ terrorists to an Internet Protocol address used by a secret military intelligence operative.

Mr Seneviratne has claimed that military intelligence officers also visited the house of one suicide bomber on the morning of the attacks but did not share this information with police.

“On such occasions, when we tried to question certain individuals and groups, we faced some obstacles,” Mr Seneviratne said.

Sri Lankan intelligence agencies twice stopped police from questioning associates of the suicide bombers on the grounds they were involved in national security operations, he said.

“As military intelligence informed us that those officers were dealing with intelligence related secret matters, we didn’t investigate them further.”

‘Wrong information’ concealed terror group’s role in earlier killing, former commander says  

Mr Seneviratne said military intelligence had thwarted an earlier investigation which he believed could have prevented the Easter Sunday attacks.

He said military intelligence had given police “wrong information” which concealed the role of the NTJ in the murder of two constables in east Sri Lanka six months before the Easter Sunday attacks.

In documents filed in the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka last year, Mr Seneviratne alleged the Directorate of Military Intelligence and the Security Intelligence Service were “suspected to have conspired to plant [evidence] to mislead CID investigations on the murder of two police officers to prevent them from discovering the real assailants”.

Mr Seneviratne told ABC Investigations that he believed there was “a possibility to prevent the Easter Sunday attacks, if we were able to find out the suspects of the police murders”.

In September, Asad Maulana, a former aide to a current Sri Lankan government minister, told Channel 4’s Dispatches program that he witnessed a meeting between the NTJ terrorists and then head of military intelligence, Suresh Salley in February 2018, 14 months before the Easter Sunday bombings.

Mr Maulana claimed to Channel 4 that the intelligence chief later told him Mr Rajapaksa needed “an unsafe situation” to win an election.

Mr Seneviratne said Mr Maulana’s claims demanded a “thorough investigation”, including into why intelligence officers misled police about NTJ.

Mr Maulana’s former boss, the State Roads Minister Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan, has accused him of concocting the allegations to bolster his claim for asylum overseas.

Mr Rajapaksa, who after his ousting last year was sanctioned by Canada for human rights violations during Sri Lanka’s civil war, has dismissed the allegations as “absurd”.

Mr Salley has denied any contact with the NTJ terrorists, saying he was overseas at the time of their alleged meeting.

He is now the head of Sri Lanka’s Security Intelligence Service, a role that saw him meet Australian officials including Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil last year.

Neither Mr Rajapaksa nor Mr Salley responded to ABC interview requests or questions.

Last month, Channel 4 declined to appear before a commission of inquiry launched by current Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe, citing a need to protect confidential sources.

The head of the Catholic church in Sri Lanka, Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, called on the Australian government to help build international pressure for an independent investigation to “help us to find out what really happened to these 270 people and who was behind it”.

“We want the Australian government, and also many governments in the world, to consider this as a serious human rights violation, violation of the dignity of human beings and serious suspicions of a political plot appearing,” he said.

He said in Sri Lanka, “big people, ministers … those who are in the intelligence services, had some role to play in the general mayhem that existed during the wartime: disappearances, murders during the war time, and then subsequently”.

Cardinal Ranjith said one of his priests was being sued for defamation by Suresh Salley, after raising questions about the Easter Sunday attacks and what he said appeared to be “a political plot by a group of people at the top”.

“Other priests … have been under surveillance of these people. I am sure they are having files about many of us, even myself, I’m quite sure of that, because our telephones are not safe anymore for us to converse freely,” he said.

In Melbourne, Chathudilla Weerasinghe still lives with a fragment from an NTJ bomb inside her from the Easter Sunday attack on Colombo’s Kingsbury hotel.

“It’s too risky to get the shrapnel out because it’s right next to the heart,” she says.

“[The doctors] don’t want to risk that. So, it’s better to just leave it there.”

Her father Ranjith, a Monash University mathematics lecturer, said the family took seriously allegations that some Sri Lankan officials might have been complicit in the attacks. (ABC)

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Retired Senior DIG Ravi Seneviratne who was remanded following a drunk driving incident has been granted bail. 

The Mount Lavinia Additional Magistrate released former SDIG Seneviratne on a surety of Rs. 100,000 when the case was taken up for hearing today.

The bail has been granted after the Court yesterday rejected an appeal for bail by him.

The former Senior Police officer was arrested for driving under the influence on Saturday night (Oct 28) and was remanded until November 01.

The Wellawatte Police arrested him after colliding with two vehicles, a car and a bus, on Marine Drive in Wellawatte while travelling from Bambalapitiya to Dehiwala. 

Investigations at the accident site confirmed that Retired Senior DIG Ravi Seneviratne had been driving under the influence of alcohol. (NewsWire)

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The Mount Lavinia Additional Magistrate’s Court today rejected an appeal for bail by Retired Senior DIG Ravi Seneviratne who was remanded following a drunk driving incident, Lankadeepa reported.

The former Senior Police official was arrested for driving under the influence on Saturday night (Oct 28) and was remanded until November 01.

The Wellawatte Police arrested him after colliding with two vehicles, a car and a bus, on Marine Drive in Wellawatte while travelling from Bambalapitiya to Dehiwala. 

Investigations at the accident site confirmed that Retired Senior DIG Ravi Seneviratne had been driving under the influence of alcohol. 

An appeal for bail submitted via a motion was rejected by Mount Lavinia Additional Magistrate Sanjaya L.M. Wijesinghe when the case was taken up for hearing today. (NewsWire)

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