Suspended Sri Lankan police chief gets chargesheet by parliamentary inquiry panel

Colombo, May 19 (PTI) Suspended Sri Lankan police chief Deshabandu Tennakoon was on Monday served with a chargesheet containing 22 charges by an ongoing parliamentary probe aimed at his removal from office.

Tennakoon made his first appearance before the panel here. He has been given time to respond.

Following a resolution adopted under the Removal of Officers (Procedure) Act of 2002, Parliament appointed a committee of three to inquire into the conduct of Tennakoon and report its findings to the Speaker.

Tennakoon would now face removal by President Anura Kumara Dissanayake after his address to Parliament on the findings of the committee on grounds of charges made against the police chief.

Tennakoon had been suspended by the Supreme Court in July 2024 by ordering a hearing on the legality of his appointment.

He was appointed police chief in November 2023 despite him being found guilty of torturing a person in custody by the Supreme Court in a fundamental rights petition.

The disgraced police chief was remanded and later bailed early April for ordering an illegal raid of a hotel in a southern resort town.

He has since sought police protection claiming underworld gangs were threatening him. PTI CORR GSP GSP