Sri Lanka’s former police chief remanded to judicial custody

Colombo, Aug 20 (PTI) Deshabandu Tennakoon, Sri Lanka's former chief of police, was on Thursday remanded to judicial custody till August 27, a second time in remand for him in five months.

Tennakoon was arrested on Wednesday for his alleged role in cracking down the 2022 people’s uprising termed the Aragalaya.

He was produced in the Colombo Fort magistrate's court earlier in the morning.

He tried to prevent arrest through court intervention but his anticipatory bail application was rejected by the court on Tuesday.

Just two weeks ago, Tennakoon was formally sacked from the post of the inspector general through a parliamentary panel which investigated the charges of misconduct against him.

Tennakoon, the then senior deputy inspector general in charge of the capital Colombo, was named a suspect in the case on the then government’s crackdown of the peaceful protestors.

Aragalaya led to the resignation of the then president Gotabaya Rajapaksa bowing to the demand that he resign over his inability to tackle the economic crisis.

Violence erupted in the city on May 9, 2022 as the then government supporters assaulted the protesters. Tennakoon was accused of inaction to prevent the clashes.

In March this year, after evading court on a separate case, Tennakoon was arrested and spent two weeks in remand custody before being released on bail.

He was appointed the police chief in November 2023 despite the highest court sanctioning him for torture of a suspect under police custody.

In July 2024, the Supreme Court suspended him from functioning as the police chief which led to his sacking through the parliamentary inquiry against him. PTI CORR NPK NPK