Proceedings in the Matara Magistrate’s Court over the shooting at the W15 hotel in Weligama have concluded, after the Attorney General served indictments in the Matara High Court against nine police officers including former Inspector General of Police Deshabandu Tennakoon, Hiru News reported.
Matara Magistrate Chathura Dissanayake announced the decision on Friday, when the case came up before him. Once indictments are filed in the High Court, the magisterial inquiry falls away and the matter proceeds to trial.
What happened in the High Court
The Attorney General filed the indictments on 7 October and read the charges to the defendants before Matara High Court Judge Nandana Amarasinghe the same day.
The judge released all nine defendants on bail. Each was ordered released on a cash bail of Rs. 250,000 and four personal bails of Rs. 10 million each, with the further condition that two of the personal guarantors must be close relatives of the defendant. Defence counsel asked for more time to pay the cash component, and the court granted a separate date for payment.
Who was indicted
Those granted bail after the indictments were read are former Inspector General of Police Deshabandu Tennakoon; former Assistant Superintendent of Police Neville Silva, who served as acting Director of the Colombo Crime Division; the division’s Officer-in-Charge, Chief Inspector Anselm De Silva; Inspector Mahesh Dunusinghe; Inspector Jagath Nishantha; Sub-Inspector Roshan Maduranga; Police Sergeant Prasanna Kumara; Police Constable Supun Priyashan; and Driver Police Constable Gihan Piyatissa.
Five counsel appeared at Friday’s hearing for seven of the suspects, including Tennakoon: Senior Counsel Dasarath Dahanayake with counsel Mahesh Pramuditha, Layan Iranga Hewa Yaddehige, Rangajeevan Vidanapathirana and Tharaka Nanayakkara.
The shooting
A team of eight officers attached to the Colombo Crime Division travelled to Weligama by van for a special operation on the night of 30 December 2023 and carried out the shooting, according to the filing. The Matara Magistrate’s Court ordered the arrest of eight people, including Tennakoon — then the serving IGP — and named them as suspects on 28 February 2025.
Not reported
Three different counts appear in the filing and are not reconciled in it: seven suspects were represented at Friday’s hearing, eight officers are described as having travelled to Weligama and as having been named in the February 2025 arrest order, and nine have now been indicted. The report does not explain the differences or say who was added.
The filing does not state the charges in the indictment, name anyone killed or injured in the shooting, give the next trial date, or say what the special operation was intended to achieve. It does not record any plea, any comment from the defendants or their counsel, or any statement from the Attorney General’s Department or the police.
This desk searched the other verified newsrooms for independent accounts of the indictment. Ada Derana carried the story on 7 October, but its domain has returned CloudFront 403 errors to this desk for twenty days and could not be fetched, so it is not cited. The other results returned were from the earlier stages of the same case — the February 2025 arrest order and the warrant that followed — and not from this month.
Sources: Hiru News.
