The Kaduwela Magistrate’s Court has authorised police to continue investigating remarks made by Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) General Secretary Sagara Kariyawasam about Inspector General of Police Priyantha Weerasuriya, after the Colombo Central Crimes Investigation Bureau reported facts to court on Thursday.
The bureau’s director, Assistant Superintendent of Police Kamal Ariyawansa, told the court that inquiries into the incident were continuing and asked for the permission needed to pursue them, Hiru News reported. Chief Magistrate Aruna Indrajith Buddhadasa granted that permission.
Broadcasters ordered to surrender raw footage
Police also asked the court to order the media channels that carried the statement to hand over unedited recordings of it. The magistrate granted that request as well.
The court directed investigators to report back on the progress of the inquiry on September 24.
The remarks at issue
Kariyawasam, an attorney-at-law, made the comments at a media briefing at SLPP headquarters on August 3. He referred to the fate of former inspectors general and urged the incumbent police chief to serve the State and the public rather than the government.
“We do not want him to go down in history as the 37th Inspector General of Police who died after being beaten on the roadside by members of the public,” he said.
Police have told the court the statement amounted to a threat to the IGP. The government has characterised it as referring to a plot to assassinate the police chief in public — a reading the SLPP rejects, saying the remarks have been taken out of context.
How the case reached court
The government ordered an investigation on August 4 after Cabinet Spokesman Dr. Nalinda Jayatissa said the comments implied the country’s police chief could be killed in public.
Public Security Minister Ananda Wijepala then told Parliament on August 5 that the matter was being treated as extremely serious, confirming the CCIB inquiry and pledging full protection for the IGP and officers serving under him. He described the remarks as a threat to the rule of law and public order.
Thursday’s proceedings move the matter from a police inquiry into judicial supervision, with the September 24 date now fixed for a progress report.
