• Gammanpila to push public petition against Govt. ‘inaction’ over said duo  

The Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) does not intend to challenge the appointments of former Senior Deputy Inspector General of Police - Criminal Investigations Department (CID), Ravi Seneviratne as the Public Security Ministry's Secretary, and the former CID Director, retired Senior Superintendent of Police Shani Abeysekara as the Police Criminal Intelligence Analysis and Prevention Division's Director, it is learnt.

Following Seneviratne and Abeysekara being implicated in the report by the Committee of Inquiry (CoI) Chaired by retired High Court Judge A.N.J. De Alwis, who investigated specific aspects of the 2019 Easter Sunday terror attacks, in particular concerning the role of the local intelligence services community, certain Opposition groups including certain SJB members have demanded that they be removed from their respective positions.

When queried by The Daily Morning as to whether the SJB would challenge their appointments legally, the Party's Legal Wing, the Samagi Lawyers' Federation (SLF) Head, President's Counsel Upul Jayasuriya said that they do not seek the removal of the duo (Seneviratne and Abeysekara). "The SJB has never challenged these two appointments. Not only are we not challenging them, we are also supportive of them." Responding to another query about the two officials having been implicated in the said CoI report he added that “They were targeting one or two people."

The Committee led by De Alwis investigated potential lapses by the Police, including the CID, and the State intelligence services in relation to the Easter Sunday attacks. Releasing it to the public, former Opposition Parliamentarian, attorney Udaya Gammanpila said that they would commence signing a public petition to demand President Anura Kumara Dissanayake to remove Seneviratne and Abeysekara from the positions that they currently hold.  

Speaking at a press conference yesterday (30), Gammanpila criticised the Government for retaining Seneviratne and Abeysekara, who he claims have been named as the main accused in an investigative committee report on the Easter Sunday attacks. He accused the President of abusing his authority by not disclosing reports on the 2019 Easter Sunday attacks.  Gammanpila argued that only the Court of Appeal has the power to annul these reports and emphasised the Government's lack of legal authority and justification/reasoning in dismissing the findings of two committees (the De Alwis committee and the retired Justice S.I. Imam committee which probed a particular Channel 4 documentary on the same which alleged the complicity of certain officials of the local intelligence services community in the bombings) appointed to investigate the attacks. 

He further criticised the Government’s dismissal of the Imam report. Gammanpila added that when they (the Government) previously rejected the report by De Alwis et al., they cited allegations against De Alwis as a reason. However, no explanation was provided this time against the Imam report, he noted. Gammanpila also raised concerns about the Government’s intent in initiating a new investigation into the Easter Sunday attacks under the leadership of Seneviratne, who was previously criticised by the De Alwis committee for alleged negligence. “What we can see is that the Government has decided that Seneviratne and Abeysekara are to lead the investigation with the intention of protecting Mohommad Ibrahim, the father of two suicide bombers involved in the attacks,” he alleged. 

“Since the removal will not be done, we are hoping to sign a public petition to inform the President about the people’s displeasure related to the misuse of the law during their (the National People’s Power [NPP] Government) first month in office. They (the NPP) criticised former Presidents for misusing the law,” he claimed. Gammanpila said that he plans to launch a campaign to collect signatures for a public petition, in order to inform the President of the public’s alleged displeasure over the purported misuse of the law. Gammanpila further expressed his plan to reach out to the community in various places to gather public discontent towards the NPP to include such in the said public petition. Emphasising the public’s alleged dissatisfaction, Gammanpila stated that a petition would soon be presented to President Dissanayake, highlighting the concerns over his decision to reject these critical reports within his first month in office. “This petition aims to inform the President of the public’s disgust over the misuse of his power by withholding these reports,” he remarked.

Attempts made to contact Cabinet Spokesperson and Public Security Minister Vijitha Herath proved futile.