The Administrative Appeals Tribunal has ruled that Criminal Investigation Department Director Senior Superintendent of Police Shani Abeysekara has met the qualifications for promotion to Deputy Inspector General (DIG), upholding his appeal against the denial of advancement.
The tribunal, comprising former Supreme Court Justice K.T. Chitrasiri, High Court Judge Sreenathi Nandasena and former Ministry Secretary J.J. Rathnasiri, found that Abeysekara could be promoted to DIG with effect from August 25, 2020.
The ruling will be submitted to the National Police Commission for action.
Abeysekara is one of Sri Lanka’s most consequential criminal investigators in recent decades, having led high-profile CID inquiries including into the Welikada prison riots and several political murder cases before being removed from the CID directorship in 2019. He was subsequently subjected to a series of disciplinary and criminal proceedings during the Rajapaksa administration, including a fabricated-evidence indictment in the Wasim Thajudeen murder probe that was later overturned on appeal.
His backdated DIG promotion — effective from August 2020, more than five-and-a-half years ago — recognises that his career progression was halted at a moment when he was already in the queue for advancement. The decision restores parity with peers who were promoted during that period and is the most significant tribunal-level reversal of police-service career interference from the prior administration.
Implementation will depend on the National Police Commission acting on the tribunal’s order. The Commission has the constitutional mandate over senior police promotions and recently carried out major transfers of three DIGs.
Abeysekara’s case is the most consequential single reversal of police career interference from the prior administration, a period also marked by Suresh Sallay’s writ petition before the Court of Appeal on related national security accountability questions.
