Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna Opposition Parliamentarian Namal Rajapaksa expressed concerns about the recent appointment of former Criminal Investigation Department (CID) Director, retired Senior Superintendent of Police Shani Abeysekara to the committee to study the Presidential Commission of Inquiry (CoI) report on the 2019 Easter Sunday terror attacks, claiming that the decision “raises serious red flags”.

Acting Inspector General of Police, Priyantha Weerasooriya appointed the said committee chaired by Senior Deputy Inspector General of Police Asanga Karawita to study and analyse the findings of the said CoI report. The committee, which was initially made up of four members, has now been expanded to five with the inclusion of Abeysekara.  However, there are allegations that his appointment amounts to a conflict of interest as he had been serving as the CID Director at the time of the bombings. 

Rajapaksa said on the social media platform X: “It is completely inappropriate for someone who was not only involved in the original investigation but also named in the said report and summoned as a witness to now be placed in a position of oversight. This is not merely a procedural misstep. It is a breach of every ethical standard. This casts a dark shadow over the credibility of the entire process. Justice must not only be done, it must be seen to be done. When public trust is already fragile, such decisions only deepen suspicion and disillusionment.” Rajapaksa said that Abeysekara, as the CID Director during the time of the said attacks, was at the heart of the initial investigations, and that now placing him in a role that demands objectivity and detachment is ironic and raises justifiable concern, especially when the report itself names him. 

He further added: “Further compounding this issue are recent political statements made by Abeysekara, clearly exposing his political biases. How can the public be expected to believe in the neutrality of this process when the person overseeing it has clear political entanglements? This is not a partisan issue. It is a matter of moral clarity and institutional integrity. The victims of the Easter Sunday attacks and the people of Sri Lanka deserve a process that is transparent, credible, and above all, fair. Anything less would be an injustice not only to those who suffered but to the very idea of accountability.”