The President has made recommendations to appoint Senior DIG Deshabandu Tennakoon as the country’s 36th Inspector-General of Police (IGP), reported Ada Derana news site on 17th March 2023. Ada Derana is owned by Dilith Jayaweera, one of the closest associates of former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa.
The current Inspector General of Police C. D. Wickramaratne is set to retire on March 25.
The news of imminent appoint of DIG Deshabandu Tennakoon as the next IGP was first reported by Sinhala language newspaper “Mawbima”, a newspaper owned by Minister in charge of Sri Lanka Police, Tian Alas.
President’s office has not denied the news story.
Sri Lankan civil society and media have expressed grave concerns on Thennakoon being appointed as IGP.
DIG Thennakoon has been under investigation for number of charges against him and some of those inquires have been ordered by the judiciary.
He has been accused of threatening human rights activists and journalists.
In the wake of news that President Ranil Wickremesinghe has recommended DIG Tennakoon to be appointed as the next IGP, Sri Lanka Bar Association issued a statement which emphasised that “It is of utmost important that the next Inspector General of Police should be an officer whose service in the police force is exemplary and free of any blemish and able to restore public confidence in the Sri Lanka Police.”
As the primary agency of enforcing the law, head of the police must be someone who has shown respect for the rule of law and implemented law without any bias.
It is clear DIG Tennakoon does not fit in to such a role. This dossier provides ample evidence to prove that point.
Read as a PDF:SLB Briefing Note – March 2023, A Dossier on SDIG Tennakoon