-By LeN Political Correspondent
(Lanka-e-News -16.May.2025, 11.10 PM) Next Monday, in the somber, oak-panelled halls of Committee Room No. 8 in Sri Lanka’s Parliament, a man who once commanded 85,000 police officers will find himself at the other end of a moral ledger. At precisely 2:00 p.m. on May 19, suspended Inspector General of Police (IGP) Deshabandu Tennakoon is scheduled to appear before a high-powered Parliamentary Inquiry Committee, charged with probing allegations of gross misconduct and abuse of public office.
It is a moment of profound symbolism—and potentially, seismic consequence—for Sri Lanka’s bruised and battered law enforcement apparatus. For a country long plagued by a culture of impunity, Tennakoon’s summoning represents something rare: a high-ranking public servant, not merely named in scandal, but made answerable to it.
The inquiry is being conducted under the auspices of the Removal of Officers (Procedure) Act, No. 5 of 2002, which empowers Parliament to examine and recommend the removal of officials for ethical and legal violations. The move follows a resolution passed on April 8, 2025, which explicitly accused the suspended police chief of engaging in “misconduct and serious abuse of power,” particularly under Sections 3(d) and 3(e) of the Act—clauses historically invoked only in the most egregious cases of administrative delinquency.
The proceedings will be overseen by a triumvirate of legal and oversight heavyweights. Supreme Court Justice P.P. Surasena chairs the committee, joined by fellow jurist Justice W.M.N.P. Iddawala and Mr. E.W.M. Lalith Ekanayake, the current Chairman of the National Police Commission. The presence of a sitting Supreme Court judge at the helm signals the seriousness of the allegations and the Government’s resolve to restore public confidence in its battered institutions.
Preliminary sessions over the past fortnight have focused on framing the scope of the investigation, with key witnesses summoned, evidence reviewed, and internal police reports scrutinised. Monday’s hearing marks the first time Tennakoon himself will appear before the committee, and expectations are running high—both for answers and for accountability.
“The public demand is not simply for punishment,” says, a political sociologist at the University of Peradeniya. “It is for truth. The office of the IGP should stand as a symbol of justice, not a shield for wrongdoing. What happens in that Committee Room will test whether Sri Lanka is serious about the integrity of its state machinery.”
For years, Deshabandu Tennakoon’s tenure was the subject of whispered complaints and muted dissatisfaction. Critics allege that his leadership coincided with the increasing politicisation of the police service, particularly in the wake of the 2019 Easter Sunday attacks and the 2022 Aragalaya protest movement. His detractors claim he operated as a political instrument of the Rajapaksa administration and later sought similar patronage under Ranil Wickremesinghe’s presidency—allegations Tennakoon has consistently denied.
Several incidents cast a long shadow over his career. Among them: the alleged failure to act on intelligence warnings ahead of the Easter bombings; the use of excessive force during anti-government protests; and alleged interference in high-profile corruption probes. Sources within the Police Department told Lanka E news that sealed testimony implicating Tennakoon in at least three separate cases of obstructing justice has been handed over to the Committee of Inquiry.
“This is not a case of political vengeance,” a senior legal officer involved in the investigation said on condition of anonymity. “The evidence is strong, the witnesses credible, and the patterns clear. We are dealing with systemic abuse—not an isolated lapse.”
In political terms, the inquiry into Tennakoon’s conduct is likely to become a bellwether for the administration of President Anura Kumara Dissanayake. Swept into office on a wave of popular discontent and promises of anti-corruption reforms, Dissanayake’s Government now faces its most high-profile test yet: proving that its rhetoric of “cleaning up the system” will be followed by action.
“The culture of ‘untouchables’ in uniform must end,” said Energy Minister Kumara Jayakody in a fiery speech earlier this month, during the parliamentary debate that led to the inquiry’s approval. “No one—no matter how high their rank—can be above the law.”
For his part, President Dissanayake has maintained a studied distance from the proceedings, declining public comment but authorising full executive cooperation with the committee’s requests for documentation and personnel support.
In parallel, the Acting Inspector General of Police has appointed a special task unit to assist the inquiry—a move described by insiders as both logistical and symbolic. It is the first time in recent history that the police department has formally supported an investigation into its own highest-ranking officer.
While the spotlight rests heavily on Tennakoon, the inquiry committee itself is also being closely watched, particularly by civil society groups that have long decried a lack of independent oversight within the state’s coercive institutions.
The Bar Association of Sri Lanka (BASL), and the Transparency International and the Centre for Policy Alternatives, urged the committee to “resist interference and operate with full transparency, in the service of public trust.”
Inquiry Committee is said to have privately assured stakeholders that all hearings will be transcribed and archived, and that the final report will be made available to the public barring classified security materials..
For now, Deshabandu Tennakoon remains publicly silent, having retained the services of a prominent legal team led by President’s Counsel Chandima Ratwatte. Sources close to the defence say Tennakoon will present himself as a victim of political scapegoating, arguing that operational decisions made during periods of national crisis are being unfairly recast as misconduct.
He is expected to submit a detailed affidavit on Monday, alongside counter-testimonies from senior officers who served under him. Legal observers suggest his strategy will rest on plausible deniability, institutional confusion, and the claim that he was following ministerial orders.
Whether this line of defence will hold in the face of mounting documentation—and potentially damaging witness testimony—remains to be seen.
The Sri Lankan public, long disillusioned by the perceived impunity of the powerful, is watching the process with cautious optimism. On social media, hashtags like #IGPinquiry and #JusticeForSriLanka have begun trending, reflecting a growing hunger for transparency and reform.
The outcome of the inquiry could reverberate well beyond the police force. Should the committee find Tennakoon guilty of abuse, Parliament may initiate a formal motion for his removal, setting a precedent for accountability that could extend to other arms of the bureaucracy—military intelligence, the attorney general’s office, and even senior public administrators.
“This is the opening salvo in a much broader institutional reckoning,” said Dr. Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu, Executive Director of the Centre for Policy Alternatives. “It’s not just about one man. It’s about whether Sri Lanka can cleanse its administrative organs of the rot that has built up over decades.”
In a twist of irony, the man who once wielded the baton of national law enforcement now walks a line between administrative infamy and legal exoneration. His fate will not be decided by the hierarchy he once commanded, but by a panel of peers in the Parliament he once answered to in theory, if not always in practice.
Come Monday, as the inquiry committee convenes behind closed doors in Committee Room No. 8, the air will be thick with consequence. For Deshabandu Tennakoon, it may be the beginning of a long legal battle. For Sri Lanka, it is something more—a reckoning with its past, a measure of its present, and a test of whether justice, long delayed, can finally be delivered.
-By LeN Political Correspondent
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by (2025-05-16 17:56:34)
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