By Sunanda Deshapriya
(Lanka-e-News -04.Sep.2021, 5.45PM) IGP C.D. Wickramaratne made a special statement about the investigation on Easter Sunday attack a few days ago. His story is full of accusations against the police and those who do not want to be named.
The IGP inadvertently attacked the black flag protest held on the 27th Friday against the delay in bringing the real culprits of the Easter attack to justice. The statement was made to show that the campaign ade by the Catholic Church and other civil society groups, including Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, to end the investigation into the Easter attacks and bring all those involved to justice is wrong.
It was this Wickramaratne who assumed duties as the Inspector General of Police from April 26, 2019, until Gotabhaya told him to take over the investigation into the Easter attacks. All sections of the police have been under his control since then. Secondly is to point out that DIG Ravi Seneviratne and SSP Shani Abeysekera, who conducted the investigation into the Easter attack were incorrect and to underestimate the evidence they found.
Thirdly is to remove the allegations against Nilantha Jayawardena, the head of the National Intelligence Service, and other high-ranking police officers who are now being held accountable for their failure to take appropriate action to prevent the Easter attacks. He stretches to point out that the CID failed to see the various armed activities carried out by the Saharan group as a single process.
Fourth is to create the impression that people like Muslim scholars were involved in the Easter attack. He goes on to say that people like lawyer Hejaz Hezbollah and poet Ahnaf Jazeem were indirectly responsible for the attack.
Less than a week following the Easter attacks, then IGP Pujitha Jayasundara work was suspended. Therefore, it was this Wickramaratne who assumed duties as the Inspector General of Police from April 26, 2019, claiming that the Easter attack investigation did not take place until Gotabaya told him. All sections of the police have been under his control since then.
The (Acting) IGP receives a daily report from the Police Special Bureau. According to the IGP, the report should also include the activities of the Saharan group. Why did IGP Wickremaratne fail to realize that an Islamic extremist group was operating in the area to match the criminal facts he received? Nilantha Jayawardena, the Chief of Intelligence at the National Security Council, has also made these allegations. Didn't the IGP have to put them together then?
If so, isn't IGP Wickramaratne also guilty as the Chief? It was from the investigation into the damage to the Mawanella Buddha statues the weapons belonging to the Saharan group were found in a camp in Wanathawilluwa. The connection between the events was beginning to show by then. Also, the then Chief of Terrorism Investigation Division IGP Nalaka Silva had obtained a warrant for Saharan's arrest.
Following that, DIG Nalaka Silva was imprisoned by a liar named Namal Kumara a stooge of President Sirisena, who appeared to be a pet of the present police, for plotting to assassinate Gotabhaya. Again Namal Kumara was also in the midst of anti-Muslim attacks that erupted after the Easter attacks.
Whose pet is Namal Kumara?
What does the IGP say about these incidents?
Army spies gave training in Saharan's camps.
According to the report of the Easter Commission of Inquiry, the weapons training at Saharan's camps was provided by two Sri Lanka Army spies. If that is the case how come these training camps were not reported to the Army Intelligence? In fact, the training camp was the activism of the Saharan group, which was not reported by police inspections or military intelligence. According to the report of the Easter Commission of Inquiry, two Sri Lanka Army spies were giving weapons training at these camps. If so, how come these training camps were not reported to the Army Intelligence? Wickramaratne who kept his mouth shut during 40 meetings
(Acting) IGP Wickramaratne had at least 40 discussions with the CID team led by Shani Abeysekera which investigated the Easter attacks. Informed sources say that he, as the then acting IGP he did not give any oral or written guidance during any of these discussions.
If there are any written instructions given by Wickramaratne, can he submit those?
Wickramaratne joined the police as a graduate and directly promoted to Assistant Superintendent of Police. That is to the National Intelligence Service. He has not prosecuted any grass-root level crimes and has not filed a single case in courts.
Now suddenly IGP Wickramaratne is being told that it is wrong to rush or set a time limit to complete investigations into such a crime. It appears to be a response to the black flag protests held last 21st.
However, it was none other than Gotabaya Rajapaksa who promised to expedite investigations into the Easter attacks as soon as he became President and punish the perpetrators regardless of rank. It was one of his main presidential promises.
Less than a month after taking office (December 3, 2019), President Rajapaksa summoned the commissioners of the Presidential Commission of Inquiry into the Easter attacks and called to expedite the investigations.
Less than three months after Gotabaya Rajapaksa came to power, a six - member task force was set up under then - Major General Jagath Alwis, the head of the National Intelligence Service, to expedite the investigation into the Easter attacks.
It has now been 18 months since the task force was formed and the IGP has not said a word about it. Is there anything new that the force has discovered through hasty investigations?
Is the task force at least functional?
Is the IGP now claiming that it is wrong for the President Gotabhaya to expedite the investigation into the Easter attacks?
Is the cardinal, the Catholic Church and the victims alone who make this request are wrong?
Isn't IGP Wickramaratne attacking the speedy prosecution demanded by the Catholic Church? The IGP implies it could take five to six years to complete the investigation.
Gotabhaya also promised to appoint a new commission of inquiry once he came to power. That has not yet happened.
IGP Wickramaratne's video statement indicates.“There was no need for international investigations into LTTE terrorism because the LTTE had no international connections”
The LTTE was at the forefront military organizations with an international network around the world. It raised funds and bought weapons abroad. Its spokespersons lived in France and England. It even had state-level relations with a number of African countries. The IGP said that there was no need for an international inquiry into such an organization. He goes on to say that there was no investigation into any international connections linked to the Easter attack until he took over the investigation at the behest of the President which is a bigger subterfuge.
The Interpol chief met with Sri Lankan leaders and police chiefs on August 27, 2019.
According to the Interpol website, which is considered an international police force, an incident response team called the Incident Response Team (IRT) was deployed at the request of the Sri Lankan authorities immediately after the attack. Interpol's General Secretary J. Stoke arrived in Sri Lanka on August 27, 2019 and met with President Sirisena, Prime Minister Wickremasinghe and IGP Wickremaratne.
It was the first international investigation team to visit Sri Lanka after the Easter attacks. It also included a number of experts in the relevant fields.
Ahmed Milhan Hayatu, an Easter attacker, was arrested in a Middle Eastern country on a red warrant issued by Interpol. The information was provided by the team led by Shani Abeysekera who was conducting the investigation at that time
It was DIG Ravi Seneviratne, who was in charge of the CID then, He briefed the Interpol chiefs on their visit to Sri Lanka. How did IGP Wickramaratne forget all this now?
As Acting Inspector General of Police, Wickramaratne testified before the Presidential Commission of Inquiry into the Easter attacks. In that testimony, he did not in any way blame the police officers who conducted the investigation at the time, as he said in his video story.
Wickramaratne now says that CID officials were unable to go into depth about the Easter attack because they were anxious to end the investigation abruptly. This is also a blatant subterfuge.
Both DIG Ravi Seneviratne and SSP Shani Abeysekera, who testified before the Easter Commission, said the investigation was not over. Ravi Seneviratne said he could not find the invisible hand behind the Easter attackers before he retired. Shani Abeysekera said the investigation was not over and still there is a threat to national security.
Now the Attorney General's Department has arrested all those who have been charged in connection with the Easter attack, according to investigations conducted by the CID at the time.
1. Following Wickramaratne apppoited as the Inspector General of Police he transferred about 20 CID officers who conducted the investigation to other divisions. At that time, the investigations were not over. What progress has been made under IGP Wickramaratne regarding the following matters which they were investigating?
2. Appearing under the pseudonym 'Sonic Sonic', a police sub-inspector had links with the Easter attackers under the direction of which unit.
3. Why was the investigation into a soldier who had found links with the Saharan group following a phone number provided by an international intelligence service was stopped?
4. What was the motive behind the fake investigation reports linking the LTTE regarding the murder of two police officers in Vavunathivu killed by the Saharan group on November 31st during the 2018 illegal Sirisena Rajapaksa regime? Why five fake investigative reports compiled falsely linking the Vavuathivu murders of the police officers to the LTTE given to the Army Intelligence and the National Intelligence Service led by Nilantha Jaywardhana?
5. Who was behind sending police dogs to the house of Kadirmathambi Irajakumaran alias Ajanthan, who was arrested following a coat found three days after the Vavuathivu murder? How did they find a coat that was not wet even after three rainy days?
6. How did Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, a civilian at the time, learn that the assassination was not linked to the LTTE, as the Mawbima newspaper recently reported (Anura Kumara's parliamentary speech), despite five intelligence reports linking the killings to the LTTE? Gotabhaya Rajapaksa has written a note to Ravi Seneviratne, the head of the CID, in his official diary stating that Gotabaya had told him so.
7. How Army intelligence officers managed to get to the home of the attacker Jameel, who was ready to attack the Taj Samudra Hotel, hours after learning that he was not dead.
8. Whether an intelligence officer request the ISIS to accept responsibility of the attack bearing Podi Saharan in Matale.
1. In the IGP's video he blames the CID, but does not say a word about the National Intelligence Service and its chief who received information about the attack and did not take appropriate action. Why ?
2. DIG Nilantha Jayawardena, who was the head of the National Intelligence Service at the time of the attack, is investigating whether the data on his mobile phone and computer was deleted, which could have contained vital information.
3. Is there an investigation against DIG Nilantha Jayawardena, who was the head of the National Intelligence Service at the time of the attack, who deleted important data on his mobile phone and computer which could have contained vital information.
4. According to Sarath Weerasekara, the Minister in charge of Police in June 2021, despite the information received prior to the attack, why no action has been taken so far on the indictments filed by the Public Service Commission against the relevant police officers for not preventing the attack.Why? It was in February 2021 that the indictments against eight persons, including three Senior DIGs and two Senior Superintendents of Police, were drafted and submitted to the National Police Commission. But no action has been taken yet. Why?
5. These senior police officers request the Mahanayake Theras to intervene to prevent the National Police Commission from taking action on these charge sheets. Why not take action against those senior officers as an act of indiscipline?
6. Despite the Easter Commission stating that former Defense Secretary Hemasiri Panranando, former IGP Pujith Jayasundara, former National Intelligence Chief Sisira Mendis and former State Intelligence Chief Nilantha Jayawardena have committed criminal offenses, Why only former IGP Poojitha Jayasundara and former Defense Secretary Hemasiri Fernando have been arrested and prosecuted. Why not others?
7. Why IGP Wickremaratne's video speech does not say anything of the report of the Presidential Commission of Inquiry into the Easter attack?
8. Whether the IGP will implement the recommendations made in that report or not?
If IGP Wickramarathe accuses lawyer Hejaz Hisbullah who an intellectual who was involved for the Easter attack we should note this down for the reference of IGP Wickramarathe.
There is nothing stated about the Easter attack in indictment (charge sheet) given to lawyer Hejaz Hezbollah.
Ahnaf Jazeem has not yet been charged.
In fact, IGP Wickramaratne has read out the charge sheet against him. It could not have been written by him. Unofficial sources state that he was written to make the speech by the Director General of the State Intelligence Service (SIS), Major General Suresh Saleh.
Translated by Robinhood
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by (2021-09-04 12:29:12)
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