• NPC awaiting report to proceed on SC Easter Attacks order

A disciplinary inquiry will, as directed by the Supreme Court (SC), be initiated against Senior Deputy Inspector General of Police (SDIG) and former State Intelligence Service (SIS) Director Nilantha Jayawardena, but only after Inspector General of Police (IGP) Chandana D. Wickramaratne submits an interim report to the National Police Commission (NPC), according to NPC Chairman Chandra Fernando.

Speaking to The Morning, NPC Chairman Chandra Fernando said: “On 13 January, we wrote to Inspector General of Police (IGP) Chandana D. Wickramaratne to ask what action will be taken with regard to the SC decision. It is not the IGP who will carry out the disciplinary inquiry against him. It will be done by a panel of investigating officers. The IGP will be sending an interim report to the NPC in the coming days, and we, as the NPC, will take our course of action according to that report.”

Last week, the Supreme Court (SC) ordered Senior Deputy Inspector General of Police (SDIG) and former State Intelligence Service (SIS) Director Nilantha Jayawardena to personally pay Rs. 75 million as compensation for the victims of the Easter Sunday Attacks of 2019, and the State to take appropriate disciplinary action against Jayawardena for his lapses and failures as the SIS Director at the time of the terror attacks.

When queried as to whether SDIG Jayawardena will have to face any interdiction, NPC Chairman said that there is no requirement for that as of now. 

“A Fundamental Rights (FR) petition is not a criminal case. According to law, an FR application is a sui generis case. There are criminal cases, civil cases and sui generis cases. An interdiction is mandatory when there is a disciplinary inquiry against a Police officer on a criminal case. Every offence does not carry an interdiction. Therefore, there is no requirement of an interdiction as of now.”

He added that any change to the recent promotion given to SDIG Jayawardena as SDIG-Administration with a disciplinary inquiry being initiated against him will be decided based on the interim report which will be submitted by the IGP. He also said that it is important to ensure SDIG Jayawardena's human rights too, during the process of the inquiry, not as an SDIG, but as a citizen.

Police Media Spokesman, Senior Superintendent of Police and Attorney-at-Law Nihal Thalduwa was not available for comment.

In a landmark verdict, the SC, which held that former President and Defence Minister and incumbent Opposition MP Maithripala Sirisena, former Secretary to the Ministry of Defence Hemasiri Fernando, former IGP Pujith Jayasundara, former State Intelligence Service (SIS) Director SDIG Jayawardena, and former Chief of National Intelligence and DIG Sisira Mendis have violated fundamental human rights by not preventing the Easter Sunday terror attacks of 2019, also ordered them to personally pay Rs. 310 million as compensation to the victims of the bombings, with Jayawardena being ordered to pay a sum of compensation of Rs. 75 million.

This order has been issued in a backdrop where Jayawardena has been appointed as the SDIG – Administration following the retirement of SDIG Nandana Munasinghe, and IGP Wickramaratne has reportedly made a recommendation to the NPC to make Jayawardena's appointment permanent.