Incumbent Inspector General of Police (IGP) Chandana D. Wickramaratne, whose service extension expired yesterday (26), will most probably be granted another service extension, The Daily Morning learns.

Wickramaratne, who had submitted retirement papers earlier this year, was provided with a three-month service extension by President and Defence Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, which ended yesterday. The Daily Morning queried Speaker of the Parliament and Constitutional Council (CC) Chairman Mahinda Yapa Abeywardana as to whether the CC had received any nomination for the post of the IGP, to which he said: “We have not yet received a nomination”.

When contacted, Secretary to the Ministry of Public Security Viyani Gunathilaka said that a decision pertaining to the matter is yet to be made.

Against this backdrop, sources within the CC told the Daily Morning that Wickramaratne will most probably be granted another service extension. “If the CC had received any nomination for the IGP, an emergency meeting would have been called. The non-receipt of a nomination hints at another extension to the current IGP. The President does not need permission from the CC to grant him another extension,” a member of the CC said.

Commenting on the matter to the Daily Morning earlier, Minister of Public Security Tiran Alles said that a decision on the matter could only be taken once President Wickremesinghe returns from his official overseas visit to the United Kingdom and France. He has since returned to the country.

On 26 April 2019, then-President and incumbent Opposition Parliamentarian Maithripala Sirisena ordered former IGP Pujith Jayasundara to resign over the latter’s alleged failure to prevent the Easter Sunday terror attacks on 21 April 2019. Jayasundara refused to resign and was then sent on compulsory leave, after which Wickramaratne was appointed the Acting IGP. He was confirmed as the IGP on 25 November 2020. He was scheduled to retire in March 2023, and was granted a three-month service extension by the President.