Magistrate rules earlier discharge legally flawed, directs fresh action in Navy abduction case
By Maneshka Borham./Sunday Observer
A tall and commanding figure, Ex-Chief of Defence Staff Admiral Ravindra Chandrasiri Wijegunaratne is a man of many accomplishments. A Naval officer with nearly 40 years of service in the Sri Lanka Navy, he is a decorated war veteran with four gallantry medals and the founder of the Navy’s elite Special Boat Squadron.
Since his retirement, Wijegunaratne’s career has also extended beyond the military, serving as a High Commissioner under the Government of former President Ranil Wickremesinghe and earning Pakistan’s Nishan-e-Imtiaz, one of the country’s highest civilian honours. In addition, he has moved through various corporate leadership roles and presents himself as a writer of sorts, alongside a range of other pursuits. He has also, on occasion, drawn attention for less-than-cordial exchanges with journalists.
Shifting fortunes
His career reached its peak during his tenure as CDS, but it also coincided with the moment his fortunes began to shift, when he was named as a suspect in a case that shook the country to its core, the now infamous abduction and disappearance of 11 youth, allegedly linked to a “Navy abduction-for-ransom gang” said to have operated between 2008 and 2009.
In 2018, Wijegunaratne found himself standing in the dock of a crowded courtroom after being arrested and remanded, dressed in his Naval uniform adorned with medals and badges. Later he was arrested and remanded. The moment was widely regarded as one of the lowest points of his career as he became prisoner 9550 at the Welikada Prison in Colombo.
But in a development that came as a shock to the families of the victims, the charges were later dropped in 2024 on the recommendation of then Attorney General Sanjay Rajaratnam. The CID informed the Court of the recommendation, and the then Colombo Fort Magistrate Thilina Gamage ordered Wijegunaratne’s release.
However, after years of pursuit by legal counsel Achala Senenviratne representing the victims’ families, the Colombo Fort Magistrate Isuru Neththikumara this week ruled that the earlier discharge decision was flawed. The Court directed the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) to re-indict the Admiral as a suspect and proceed with filing fresh charges, potentially placing him back in the dock once again to answer the allegations against him.
The allegations
The allegations by the CID against Wijegunaratne were serious in nature, as evidenced by the presentations made in Court by CID sleuths at the time. He was accused of aiding and abetting the main suspect in the case, Lt Commander Chandana Prasad Hettiarchchi alias Navy Sampath, the mastermind of the abductions for ransom, to evade arrest and flee the country, even as an open warrant was out for his arrest.
In August 2018, the CID told the Court that it had sufficient evidence to connect the then CDS to the case. According to the CID Wijegunaratne, his tenure as Navy Commander had protected Hettiarachchi while also aiding and abetting him to flee the country, even supporting him financially.
The CID said it had sent two messages to the administrative branch of the Naval Headquarters, for the attention of Navy Commander Ravindra Wijegunaratne, on March 1 and 28, 2017, requesting the Navy to produce Navy Sampath at the CID Headquarters on March 2 and 31. As these requests went unheeded, evidence and witness statements the CID said revealed that Hettiarachchi was being harboured by the Navy with the knowledge of the Commander at the Naval Headquarters in Colombo during the time.
Witness testimonies
The evidence to support this claim comes from a statement made to the CID by Hettiarachchi’s wife herself. She had told investigators that she visited Hettiarachchi thrice while he was at the HQ between March 3 and March 31, 2017, despite the Navy insisting at the time that they did not know his whereabouts.
Her statement is also backed by Lt. Commander Geethal Laksiri, who cooperated with the CID. In his statement to the authorities, Laksiri said that Hettiarachchi was housed in the adjacent room to his, in the officers’ mess at the time.
Once encountering Wijegunaratne and Hettiarachchi in the lift, Laksiri was witness to a damning conversation between the two. As he puts it, seeing Hettiarachchi, the then Navy Commander Wijegunaratne had inquired as to where he was heading off to, only to be told Hettiarachchi was visiting the Light House to meet his wife. “I will not be held responsible if the Police nab you if you jaunt about”, the Commander had said.
Following his arrest back in 2018, however, Hettiarachchi said he was not at the Naval Command when the second CID summons had been delivered to the Navy HQ. The CID was, however, able to dismiss this claim by providing documentation as evidence to prove that food and drink had been dispensed to Hettiarachchi from the Officers’ mess during the time. The CID believes this was an ‘attempt by Hettiarachchi to protect those who once protected him.’
According to the CID, all this is sufficient evidence to prove Wijegunaratne allegedly shielded the suspect known as Navy Sampath from investigations into the abductions, while also misleading the CID by saying that the Navy did not know his whereabouts.
Further support
But, according to CID sources, Wijegunaratne’s alleged support for the accused extends further. According to Laksiri’s statement, sometime after the incident in the lift, Hettiarachchi was seen packing a bag hurriedly. He had pointed out a small bag full of money to Laksiri, and when asked about it, said that the Commander had provided him with money for expenses. That was the last time Laksiri saw Hettiarachchi at the Naval Base. The CID during one Court sitting in 2018 reported that the Sri Lanka Navy had transferred half a million rupees to Hettiarachchi from a special account maintained at the Bank of Ceylon.
The CID said when questioned following his arrest, Hettiarachchi said that the money was given to him as he had ‘taken care of his seniors well’. Making the connection, the CID has therefore also accused Wijegunaratne of helping the suspect to flee to Malaysia.
Wijegunaratne was implicated in the gruesome case through revelations in April 2019 made by another witness supporting the allegations levelled against him by the CID.
The OIC of the Gang Robberies Unit of the CID, IP Nishantha Silva, presenting a B-report before Colombo Fort Magistrate, Ranga Dissanayake, at the time said, through the latest witness statement, the CID can prove without a doubt that Hettiarachchi was protected and hidden within the premises of SLNS Parakrama, Colombo, by the former Naval Chief, Admiral Wijegunaratne, when the CID was hot on Hettiarachchi’s heels in March 2017.
In her statement, the witness identified by the CID as an individual who had constantly kept in touch with Hettiarachchi when he was on the run said that Hettiarachchi revealed to her that he was in hiding within the Naval Command and would be in trouble with the Commander of the Navy if he left its premises.
The statement had more importantly, corroborated the statements provided by two key witnesses in the case, who said that Ex-Chief of Defence Staff, Ravindra Wijegunaratne, during his tenure as the Naval Chief, protected the main suspect of the case, Lieutenant Commander Chandana Prasad Hettiarachchi aka Navy Sampath.
Conducting investigations into the mobile SIM cards used by Hettiarachchi within the confines of SLNS Parakrama in March 2017 and on his return to Sri Lanka in 2018, the CID was able to identify several mobile numbers and their owners who had constantly kept in touch with the main suspect, Hettiarachchi, during the time. Among these was a mobile number identified as belonging to Jayasinghe Arachchilage Shirani, a beautician from Mirihana, Nugegoda.
According to Shirani’s statement to the CID, she was introduced to Hettiarachchi through a mutual friend in 2007, and they had engaged in various business ventures since. “Based on his assurances, a Prime Mover truck was purchased in my name, which was hired out to the Colombo harbour,” she had told the CID, revealing the extent of their close relationship.
Shirani said she had, on numerous occasions in 2009, also met other key suspects in the case, Lt.Commander Sampath Munasinghe, Lt. Commander Sumith Ranasinghe and Former Navy Spokesman, Commodore D.K.P Dassanayake, identified as fellow members of the abduction ring.
Calling Hettiarachchi on one occasion in March 2017, Shirani had told the CID that Hettiarachchi informed her that he was now in hiding within SLNS Parakrama as the Police were sweeping the country for him. In fact, by then the CID had already written to the administrative branch of the Naval Headquarters, for the attention of Navy Commander Ravindra Wijegunaratne, on March 1, requesting the Navy to produce Hettiarachchi at the CID Headquarters on March 2, only to be told that the Navy was unable to locate Hettiarachchi.
While the CID once again informed the CID on March 28, requesting that Hettiarachchi be presented at the CID on March 31, the investigators received the same response. However, the witness’s statement now proves he was within SLNS Parakrama at the time, the CID told the Court.
“During our conversations in March 2017, Prasad said he is unable to meet me in public as the CID is in search of him and, therefore, I should visit him along with his wife at the Naval Headquarters,” she had told the CID.
Support and blessings
The damning evidence provided by Shirani against Wijegunaratne was perhaps the most crucial to establishing that Hettiarachchi was harboured at SLNS Parakrama with the support and blessings of the Naval Chief. Requesting to meet Hettiarachchi elsewhere at the time, Shirani says she was turned down by the suspect. “He said the Naval Chief would scold him if he left the Naval HQ,” Shirani told the investigators.
Remarkably, this statement made by the latest witness corroborates the evidence provided by Lt. Commander Laksiri Geethal to the CID. Accusing Wijegunaratne of assault and attempted abduction in November 2018 after the Chief of Defence Staff Admiral Wijegunaratne allegedly attacked Geethal at the Naval HQ, forcing the witness to go underground, the statement made by Shirani has only reinforced the evidence given by him against the country’s once top military chief. OIC Silva, at the time, also told the Courts that Shirani’s statement also corroborated the information provided by Hettiarachchi’s wife.
Cooperating with the CID sleuths at the time, Chathurika Nadeeshani Weerawickrama, Hettiarachchi’s wife, had also accompanied the investigation team led by OIC Silva to SLNS Parakrama, where she showed the investigators the various locations she met her husband during the time.
“My husband was unable to leave the HQ as the Police were looking for him,” she told the investigators. Therefore, she along with her children visited him on several occasions.
According to the investigators, the Navy had also allowed Hettiarachchi to use a special VIP entrance at SLNS Parakrama for his numerous rendezvous as revealed by Weerawickrama during the recent visit to the location with the CID.
However, Wijegunaratne has always denied the accusations. In his book “Read between the lines” he says “I was faulted, at the Fort Magistrate’s Court, Colombo, for protecting and not producing a Naval Intelligence Officer, summoned to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), when I was the Commander of the Navy, in 2016.
True, I have always had a soft corner for our INT persons’, because I was fully aware of their selfless contribution to the country’s successful war against LTTE, which was known as the most ruthless terrorist group in the world with Naval and air wings. Those highly motivated, brave men were instrumental in destroying the LTTE shipping network in 2006/2007, under trying conditions, when I was the Director Naval Operations, Director Naval Special Forces and Director Maritime Surveillance. The allegation against me, however, was not true,”.
Legal troubles
Nevertheless, this week, following detailed and forceful submissions by Counsel Achala Seneviratne on behalf of the aggrieved party contesting the decision to release Wijegunaratne, Magistrate Neththikumara has now determined that the earlier order was legally untenable. The Magistrate said the Attorney General’s duty to actively intervene in the interests of justice. This ruling could potentially signal the onset of renewed legal challenges for Wijegunaratne, though its broader consequences remain to be seen.