CID to grill IGP | Daily News
May 9 attack on Galle Face protesters

CID to grill IGP

MPs Rohitha, C.B, Pavithra and Sanjeewa questioned

Criminal Investigation Department Director SSP Kavinda Piyasekara told the Daily News yesterday that CID will question Inspector General of Police (IGP) C. D. Wickramaratne today (May 20) or tomorrow (21) regarding the mob assault on peaceful protesters at Galle Face on Monday (May 9).

CID Director Piyasekara said,”We have to question him over the incident. The Attorney General has given us advice on the matter. We will question him tomorrow, or the next day.”

He said this when asked by the Daily News if it had recorded any statements from the IGP about the sequence of events that led to a mob of government supporters, including Ministers, PS members, and Municipal members, carrying steel bars and sticks, storming Galle Face to attack protesters while police were present.

Police sources said they need to find out if the police higher-ups had overruled an order of the President Gotabaya Rajapaksa not to allow those coming out of Temple Trees to reach Galle Face on that day.

President Rajapaksa is said to have given clear instruction to this effect to IGP Wickramaratne and Senior Deputy Inspector General Deshabandu Tennakoon.

According to Piyasekara CID officials had discussed the matter in detail with the Attorney General yesterday and the latter had given them legal advice as to how they should proceed.

We asked CID director Piyasekara, if there was any rational justification for slowing down the arrests of suspects who flooded out from Temple Trees to Galle Face to attack the protesters.

“CID has arrested 15 suspects including two Parliamentarians regarding the incident,” he said.

“Today, we arrested a woman-member of the Dehiwala Mount Lavinia Municipal Council and a certain Youth Council member over the incident,” he said.

CID arrested Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) MPs Sanath Nishantha and Milan Jayatilaka in connection with the attack.They were remanded until May 25.

The woman member of the Dehiwala Mount Lavinia Municipal Council and the Youth Council member Mohan Abeywickrema were taken into custody for unlawful assembly in connection with the attack, Piyasekara said.

Actions will be taken accordingly and are pending against  the perpetrators of violence at Galle Face on May 9, he explained. He said that CID had informed the suspects in this investigation, among them some ministers and MPs, to report to CID to give statements. According police, former minister Johnston Fernando too has been informed to record his statement at the CID.

The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) recorded statements from Parliamentarians Rohitha Abeygunawardane, C.B. Rathnayake, Sanjeewa Edirimanna, Indika Anuruddha, Pavithra Wanniarachchi and her husband former PC member Kanchana Jayaratne yesterday over the attack on peaceful protestors in Colombo on May 9.

 


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