by Buddhika Samaraweera in The Morning, Jan 4, 2023
Former State Intelligence Service (SIS) Director, Senior Deputy Inspector General of Police (SDIG) Nilantha Jayawardena, against whom criminal proceedings were recommended by the Presidential Commission of Inquiry (CoI) that investigated into the Easter Sunday terror attacks of 2019, and who later became a State witness in the cases pertaining to the same, has been promoted to the post of Acting SDIG – Administration.
When contacted by The Morning, the Police Headquarters stated that SDIG Jayawardena had been appointed Acting SDIG – Administration after the said post was left vacant with the retirement of SDIG Nandana Munasinghe.
SDIG Jayawardena was named a State witness in the cases pertaining to the Easter Sunday terror attacks, particularly those against former Secretary to the Ministry of Defence Hemasiri Fernando and former Inspector General of Police Pujith Jayasundara against a backdrop of the said CoI having, in its final report, recommended to the Attorney General (AG) to consider instituting criminal proceedings against him (SDIG Jayawardena) under suitable provisions of the Penal Code over the terror attacks.
According to the CoI report, the first communication SDIG Jayawardena made in writing after receiving intelligence information regarding a possible terror attack on 4 April, 2019, was to then-Chief of National Intelligence Sisira Mendis by a letter dated 7 April 2019. It is titled “Information of an alleged plan of attack” and the CoI during his testimony before it queried as to why the term “alleged” was used when the foreign counterpart that sent him the intelligence information had not done so, to which his response was: “They say so, but we don’t know.”
The CoI had then concluded that he had not taken the said intelligence information seriously.
Meanwhile, when a case against Jayasundara was taken up before the Colombo High Court Trial-at-Bar, SDIG Jayawardena, the first witness in the case, was cross-examined by Attorney-at-Law Roshan Dehiwala, who was appearing for Jayasundara.
When Jayawardena was questioned as to whether he admitted that he had not given the then IGP specific intelligence information about an attack during the period 4-29 April 2019, he said: “Yes, I accept it. I did not provide specific intelligence information about an attack until the day before the attack, but I did provide information on the information which I received on 4 April 2019 and the dry run conducted by the group led by National Thowheeth Jamaath Leader Zahran Hashim.”
https://www.themorning.lk/articles/OMgQ8cBRE8ZnTrt1WQ8D
