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DIG Bimshani back in the saddle?

11 May 2021

  • Promised Environment and Community Policing

  • No written confirmation yet  

By Dinitha Rathnayake   The first Woman Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG) of the Sri Lanka Police Department Bimshani Jasin Arachchi, who was recently removed from her duties as the DIG in charge of the Police Ombudsman Range, has been promised an appointment as the DIG in charge of the Environment and Community Police. Speaking to The Morning, Police Media Spokesman DIG Ajith Rohana said that Inspector General of Police (IGP) C.D. Wickramaratne had informed him of this after a meeting held with a few officials. “After obtaining the relevant approvals, she would be assigned her duties,” he stated. However, speaking to The Morning, member of Jasin Arachchi‘s legal team, Attorney-at-Law (AAL) Dushantha Kularathne said that nothing in this regard had been informed officially in writing so far. Jasin Arachchi was removed from her duties with effect from 1 May, as exclusively reported by The Morning last week, and her staff at the Police Ombudsman Range had been ordered to report to another DIG. On the advice of Jasin Arachchi’s legal representatives, AALs Chrishmal Warnasuriya and Kularathne, a letter was sent by instructing AAL Indunil Wijesinghe to IGP Wickramaratne subsequently, requesting that Jasin Arachchi be assigned duties suitable for her DIG position, or that she be reassigned as the DIG of the Police Ombudsman Range. She was appointed by the letter dated 12 October 2020 to act in the capacity of the DIG, and the duties of the Police Welfare Range were delegated to her. Thereafter, on 13 December 2020, duties of the Police Ombudsman Range were transferred to her. “Following the filing of the Supreme Court (SC) Fundamental Rights Application Number 354/2020 challenging her appointment as a DIG, the IGP has taken further action to remove her from the said duties, and not delegated any other fit and proper duty. This is a vicarious and collateral attack on her appointment and unlawful support to the petitioners. This is also an attempt to improperly influence matters pending before the SC,” Kularathne claimed. A petition was filed by 33 Senior Superintendents of Police (SSPs) seeking an order staying the National Police Commission’s (NPC) decision to appoint Jasin Arachchi as a DIG. Police Legal Division Director SSP Ruwan Gunasekara and 32 other SSPs have filed this petition challenging the NPC’s decision to appoint then-SSP Jasin Arachchi to a DIG post. The petitioners maintain that the decision to appoint Jasin Arachchi to the post of a DIG is illegal and unlawful. They allege that the appointment has disregarded the prevailing laws, thereby causing serious and irreversible damage to the petitioners’ careers in the Police Department. The petitioners further claim that the decision to appoint her to act in the capacity and rank of a Woman DIG of the Police is a violation of the approved scheme of recruitment and promotion of the Police. However, the legal representative of DIG Bimshani Jasin Arachchi in the aforementioned letter to IGP claimed that while it was claimed there are 33 Petitioners challenging her appointment in the FR application No. 354/2020, it is in fact not so, as at least one of the Petitioners have not consented to any such action and the petition has been filed without his knowledge. The Police appointed SSP Jasin Arachchi as its first Woman DIG in 2020.


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